Firth holds off a late charge by Ririe to earn the top seed in the upcoming Nuclear Conference tournament

RIRIE – Firth held off a late charge by Ririe to win the Nuclear Conference regular-season girls basketball title Friday, and will enter next week’s district tournament with the No. 1 seed.

The Nuclear Conference has always been competitive, with North Fremont and Ririe each earning a trip to the state tournament last season.

Firth last won a state title 2014, while Ririe won the title in 2017.

Each will have to get through the district tournament, which starts Monday at Thunder Ridge High, where No. 1 Firth faces No. 5 Salmon at 6 p.m. and No. 3 North Fremont and No. 4 West Jefferson square off at 7:30 p.m.

No. 2 Ririe will play the North Fremont-West Jefferson winner on Wednesday at South Fremont.

The district championship is Feb. 12 at Thunder Ridge, with both teams advancing to the state tournament.

“Ririe is such a tough team,” Firth coach Jana Sorensen said. “It’s such a good competition and competitors for us. But, I really love our team.”

The Cougars improved to 18-3 overall, and finished the conference season 8-0.

Sorensen, in her third year as head coach, noted her teams have yet to advance to the state tournament, but she likes what she’s seen with this year squad.

“The awesome thing that they do is just the connection they have with each other,” she said.

Firth beat Ririe 60-55 earlier in the season and looked in control of Friday’s game, taking a 24-9 lead into the half.

The Bulldogs (13-8, 6-2) started chipping away in the second half and eventually pulled within 37-31 with 2:20 left in the game.

Senior guard Lucy Boone connected on a 3-pointer with 1:00 left to pull Ririe within 37-36.

The Bulldogs got the ball back and called a timeout with with 29 seconds left, but couldn’t get a shot off as the clock ticked down.

“We like to think of it as practice,” Sorensen said of the holding on at the end. “We can practice situations like that and be prepared for everything. We can never script anything.”

Firth has won nine straight heading into the postseason. Of the Cougars’ three losses, two have been to 4A runner-up Bear Lake, and 3A state runner-up Malad.

Freshman Daisha Sorensen led the Cougars with 12 points and Ady Park connected on three 3-pointers to finished with 11 points.

Eden Jensen topped Ririe with 15 points.