During their time in the 3A classification Grantsville girls basketball has never won an outright region championship. All that changed with a trip to Garland Tuesday night to face a talented Bear River squad.

Grantsville withstood the Bears’ early energy in the first quarter to outscore Bear River 31-5 in the following two quarters to roll to a 63-32 victory and clinch the Region 11 title.

Sammie Jensen led all scorers with 21 points to go along with her 14 rebounds, most points came on posting up and working hard in the paint. A total of four Cowboys scored in double-figures besides Jensen. Rachel Topham and Marissa Robbins each finished with 13 points as Kelsi Wells came in with 12 of her own.

Grantsville not only had to face an upset-minded Bear River team, but it was also senior night for the Bears. Grantsville countered their early energy and even jumped out to an early 11-4 lead behind a pair of buckets from Wells and a straight-away 3-pointer from Robbins.

“We wanted to jump on them from the start,” said Grantsville head coach Kenzie Newton. “I think we did a good job of that and we took the home court crowd out of it.”

After a timeout, Bear River stormed back with seven points from Kylee Fronk. With a jumper at the top of the key from Fronk, the Bears clawed back to cut the Grantsville lead to only 14-13. But with the offensive help coming from a unlikely source, Grantsville again built up their lead.

With her seven points in the quarter, Topham helped lead the Cowboys to scoring the final six points to give GHS the 20-13 lead after the first quarter.

“I thought (Rachel) Topham played real well,” Newton said. “Our defense stepped up in the second and third quarters. They just seemed to click out on the court.”

Bear River jumped out quickly on the Cowboys in the second, scoring two of the first three buckets in the quarter from Felicity Jones and Jessa Jeppesen. Bear River didn’t score a point the last 5:14 of the half.

The scoring drought for the Bears left the door open for Grantsville to build a spacious lead. Jensen and Robbins teamed up in the second quarter to guide GHS on a 12-0 run, capped off by a last-second reverse layup from Robbins that fell through the basket just as the buzzer sounded for halftime. The layup gave the Cowboys a 35-17 lead heading into the locker room.

Grantsville’s offense came out in the second half looking to seal the game up but it was the defense that stole the show. Clamping down on the Bear River offense, the Cowboys didn’t allow a field goal the entire quarter. The Bears went an entire 13:50 without a field goal, a stretch that lasted from the middle of the second quarter to the start of the fourth.

With their lock-down defense in place, Jensen went to work on the other end, compiling her best quarter yet with nine points in the period. The combination of defense and offense in place helped Grantsville balloon their lead to 51-18.

Bear River finally put the ball in the basket in the fourth but with the lead as big as 33 points, Grantsville could coast into the region championship.

Coach Newton knows that her team is not going to settle for just a region championship.

“We cannot just be satisfied with a region title,” Newton said.

Grantsville finishes off region play today in Morgan at 7 p.m., then will host a playoff game on Feb. 21 against an opponent to be determined later.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com