Borden comes alive in second half to lead Sumner back to the quarterfinals

It wasn’t the type of half Sumner junior Kawehi Borden is accustomed to having.

The No. 9 Auburn Tigers stymied Borden in the first half of Wednesday’s loser-out game, holding her scoreless.

But Borden proved she is simply too good for the Tigers to contain her for all 32 minutes. Borden scored all 15 of her points in the second half to lead the No. 8 Spartans to a 51-40 victory.

“I think in the first half they (the Trojans) came out really aggressive,” Borden said. “I feel like the plan for a lot of teams is to scout for our most dominant offensive players. I understand that I’m going to be scouted for that. When it’s tough for me, I’ve to get my teammates to their shots and just work on my defense and that’s what I did. Coming out in the second half, I knew I needed to step up.

And step up she did.

Borden made five of her eight field-goal attempts in the second half and shot 4-for-5 from the free-throw line.

While Borden struggled in the first half, fellow junior Raymiah Jackson shouldered the offensive load for the Sparts. Jackson scored 11 of her 16 points in the first half, shooting 5-for-6 from the field, making all five of her shots inside the three-point line.

“Ray has such a vibrant personality, which we need in a game like that,” Sumner head coach Katie Hyppa said. “Auburn is a gritty team, and (Avery) Hansen is as tough as they come. I challenged Ray to bring that out in her teammates. We needed someone to set the tone.”

Hansen led all scorers with 24 points, more than half of the Trojans’ points.

The Spartans were coming off a 73-48 loss to top seed and defending state champion Davis in the regional round of the state tournament, but Hyppa said the lopsided loss didn’t have her overly worried going into Wednesday’s must-win game.

“We played a good first quarter (against Davis),” Hyppa said. “Even in the second quarter, it was a four-point game with three minutes to play. We made a couple of costly errors. That’s credit to them. They’re a great basketball team. …I thought we had a good gameplan for them, but they shot the lights out of the ball. I think composure-wise, you’ve got to have a short memory this time of year. You’ve got to survive and advance.”

The Spartans (25-4) will face No. 2 Union (25-2) and their star point guard Brooklynn Haywood at 2 p.m. in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

“Union is obviously a good basketball team,” Hyppa said. “Brooklynn is one of the best players in the state and on the west coast and can score the ball at a very high clip. We’re going to have a good gameplan for them, and it’s going to come down to executing it.”