St. George • Brecklyn Murdock and Kennady McQueen are as complimentary of each other as they can get for the North Summit Braves.
Not only are they cousins, but the pair know how to divide the scoring load.
Murdock and McQueen scored 14 points apiece in less than three quarters of work and North Summit clamped down on the defensive end to rout Merit Prep 56-24 in the Class 2A girls’ basketball state tournament first round Friday at Desert Hills High.
The Braves (18-6) led 31-3 at the half and were able to get the reserves plenty of work.
“We know what our next goal is next week, so we had to keep pushing harder to get to where we want to be, and that’s the state championship,” Murdock said.
Murdock added that she’s been playing together with McQueen “since we were babies.”
“Our moms are twins, so we just go to work together with our own little system,” McQueen said.
Braves coach Jerre Holmes said his team responded well with the long trip south and the pressure of the postseason.
“We may have been a little too relaxed, but we didn’t have the best start,” Holmes said. “It was still good enough to advance.”
Murdock had 12 points in the first half and McQueen added nine as the Braves built their big halftime lead. The No. 1 seed from Region 16 advanced to a quarterfinal showdown against Enterprise on Thursday at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield. Merit Prep finished its season at 6-15.
The Wolves ran over Rockwell 61-19 in their opening-round game to move on.
