Malad seniors dominate on senior night to conclude dominant regular season

MALAD CITY — After seeing their comeback attempt in last year’s 3A State Championship game fall just short, the Malad Dragons accepted the heartbreak of defeat. Head coach Trevor Jones said after the game that while the loss did hurt, he had a sincere belief that his then-juniors would come back fully prepared to turn things up another notch as seniors.

All season long, the Dragons (19-2, 9-0), led by those five seniors, proved their coach right. Having already secured a second consecutive conference championship, Malad finished its regular season Wednesday night by overwhelming the Soda Springs Cardinals (8-12, 5-3), 52-22. And as has been the case all season, the effort was led by an all-senior starting lineup.

“They have a mission, they have a goal, and it’s a big one. So, when they come out, they’re ready to play,” Jones said. “To be honest, as a coach, I’m just lucky to be along with an awesome group of girls that go so hard.”

After the game, Mikell Keetch, one of the Malad seniors, told EastIdahoSports.com that it can be difficult to get going after a pre-game ceremony, but that this group has spent so much time together they know how to drive each other.

They did a good job of that Wednesday, with senior Brynnlee Jones knocking down a 3-pointer to open the scoring. The Dragons never looked back, and never trailed.

Brynnlee finished the game with 12 points, on four 3-pointers, to go with five rebounds. Keetch led all scorers with 17, adding four rebounds and a steal.

Joining Keetch to make up Malad’s starting backcourt is senior Kiley Miller, who finished her night with five points seven rebounds and two steals. Along with Izzy Haycock, Keetch and Miller harassed Soda Springs guards for 94 feet all night long.

Her and Miller, Keetch said, have earned the nickname the “Devil Sisters,” likening them to the Tasmanian Devil from the old Looney Tunes cartoons, because of the way they play at such a high speed and intensity level throughout the game

“Because we’re so aggressive and scrappy up on those presses, and we go get the ball,” she explained.

Haycock, though, was the one interrupting passing lanes, finishing her senior night with a six-point, five-rebound, four-steal performance.

The tallest of the fire-breathing five is Liv Nelson, who ended the night with four points, two blocks and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Soda Springs was led by their own senior, Courtnee Gronning, who scored a team-leading seven points, grabbed one rebound and swiped a pair of steals.

As conference champions, Malad will carry the top seed into next week’s district tournament, which, as Jones said, is the time for his team to be at its best.

The effort is there, the coach said, it has been all season. And the Dragons have developed layers of “grit,” “stability,” and “mental toughness” after what was, intentionally, a very difficult schedule.

Malad’s two losses are a product of the tough schedule Jones put together, coming at the hands of Lehi (UT) and the 4A state championship contenders from Bear Lake, in back-to-back games — by a combined 11 points.

His team, Jones continued, has broken the season into four stages — they have concluded the non-conference “preseason” and now the conference season. The next stage, the district tournament, will require even more focus and intensity. They will need to be at their best to even have a chance at the final stage — a state title.

“You don’t go to state unless you win your district. So having those goals along the way is huge — letting them see it, and enjoy it, but then also feeding that fire,” he said.

Keetch said that further upping that effort and intensity will be squarely on the shoulder of the players, as they search for what she called “revenge.”

“We’ve got to want it. As athletes, as players, we’ve got to want it. Our coaches can want it all they want, but if we don’t want it, then we don’t get it,” she said. “This is ours, we want it.”