Conference Matchup ends in Overtime Thriller
2018 has come and gone and now we are taking on 2019 with a new year new us mentality. We as a team want to focus on improving our Effort, Attitude, & Toughness as individuals to help us overachieve and be competitive in every game. Currently we are 2-12 on the season and feel that we could have a few more wins but have accepted the past and look forward to the challenges ahead. Our 2 wins this season have come win we scored over 60 points in each game, defeating St. Edward 62 to 46 and our most recent win was over Tekamah-Herman in overtime the final score was 61 to 59.
Our team has suffered 4 injuries to Varsity players this season, those players include Claire Schaecher, Diana Zuniga, Brooke Mewis, & Haley Butts. 3 of the 4 injuries are season ending injuries and all had a significant impact on our team on and off the court. Most recently Haley Butts rolled her ankle against Loganview Scribner-Snyder(LVSS) and was not able to play against Tekamah-Herman. We played tough vs LVSS on Tuesday January 8th but did not make enough shots and get enough rebounds to give us a chance to compete in the end, we lost 57 to 35.
On Friday the 11th of January we faced off against Tekamah-Herman at home in a conference matchup. Coming into Friday we knew we had our work cut out for us as Tekamah-Herman has made great strides throughout the year accumulating 3 significant wins and playing some other tough teams close. Along with Tekamah-Herman improving we had suffered a season ending injury to a 3 year starter Brooke Mewis and a significant Varsity player this year Haley Butts suffered a significant high ankle sprain.
The whole night we played with great confidence and it showed in our shooting percentages and our assist total. With 20 seconds left in regulation we were down 4 points and needed to make some plays to give us a chance. Marie Sjuts dished into Whitney Zessin and she made a turnaround jumper to make it 49 to 47 with 11 seconds to go. We took a timeout after the score and came out and amped the pressure up, Riley Jurgens made a great play stealing the ball and attacked the hoop with a purpose making a critical pass to Whitney Zessin down on the block leading to a 2pt field goal to tie the game up and eventually send the game into overtime.
Going into overtime we had 2 players fouled out and had 2 other players on the floor with 4 fouls and in danger of fouling out. We started the overtime off with getting the jump ball and a backdoor pass from Rachel Jackson to Riley Jurgens that led to an old fashioned 3 point play making the layup after being fouled and then knocking in the Free Throw. The next 3 minutes I was really proud of our ability to handle adversity, we would have some defensive lapses that led to easy baskets for them and instead of hanging our heads we got the ball out and attacked with confidence. We traded baskets until the last seconds of the game.
The game was tied 59 to 59 and they missed a shot and Rachel Jackson grabbed a crucial rebound, on the rebound she was fouled and sent to the line for a one and one opportunity with 5 seconds left. Rachel made two clutch free throws and put us up 61 to 59. We took a timeout to talk about defense with 5 seconds left and Tekamah-Herman made a long pass and called a timeout past half court with 1.1 seconds left. On the inbound their player lost the ball and time ran out and we won our second game over the year in overtime fashion!
I overheard several individuals say it has been a long time since they have heard the gym that loud. After the game one of our captains and floor captain Riley Jurgens said “It feels great to come out on top. Although we have four players injured, that was no excuse. Winning takes a team effort and we had that. We were all determined to get a win even going into overtime when things were getting intense. All players shooting and playing with confidence and having 4 people scoring in double digits helped the team out. The energy from the crowd kept the adrenaline going which also helped us out a lot.” It was great to see the girls never quit and go out and fight for each other to get the win. Player of the game went to Rachel Jackson as she distributed the ball well to her teammates and made two clutch Free Throws to seal the victory. Box Score and stat sheet is attached below.
