Lady Tigers fall in final seconds to end campaign
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
KINNIKINNICK — A season full of milestones for the McClain Lady Tigers came to an end Saturday afternoon following a twisting, off-balanced jumper from Unioto's Ashley Flautt.
The 40-38 loss to the Lady Shermans in their Division II SE District sectional final at Zane Trace High School came to fruition as McClain's Tara Karnes tied the game at 38 with 1:06 left in regulation.
The final play for UHS (15-8) began with just over 33 seconds left on the clock as Alexia Overly took the inbounds pass to the top of the key and kept the spot until the clock hit 10.0. She then raced her way to the left side of the court and passed the ball to Taylor Overly in the corner behind the 3-point line.
Taylor Overly dribbled a couple steps and shot the ball, only to see it bounce off the left side of the rim. Flautt grabbed the rebound, while wrestling it away from a McClain player, turned and twisted slightly, and while surrounded by two MHS defenders, watched the ball tap the right side of the rim and just slightly off the glass, then through the hoop.
A celebration ensued by UHS, but the Lady Tigers called a timeout with 1.8 on the clock. The Lady Tigers' final possession didn't add up to points, ending their season.
"The loss wasn't for lack of effort on our girls' part because they really played hard," MHS head coach Dennis Overstake, who surpassed 500 career coaching wins this season, said. "When you look at the first time we played them in the fifth game of the season, and to (Saturday), I think we made great strides getting to this ball game, with a team that was capable of competing with them."
Flautt and Alexia Overly each led UHS with 11 points, followed by Mallory Retherford with nine.
"You have to give Unioto credit," Overstake said. "On that last shot, she (Flautt) jumped over our backside person and made a twisting shot and got the ball to go through the basket."
Getting to this point of the season for the Lady Tigers was a journey full of ups, downs and lots of improvement from the start of the season until the final buzzer rang at ZTHS.
MHS began the year losing five of their first six games (including a loss to UHS) but completed the regular season with six consecutive wins. For the game, MHS shot 31 percent from the field (13-of-42), while UHS was 16-of-44 (36 percent).
"Everybody thinks this is a tough loss, and it is a tough loss, but it would have been much tougher if we lost to them the way we did at the beginning of the season," Overstake said. "We are a much better team than the way we played them at the beginning of the season.
"We came here and gave ourselves a chance, and holding a team like this to 40 points … we gave ourselves a chance, we just didn't execute enough offensively."
The path to the final seconds of the game on Saturday somewhat resembled the Lady Tigers' entire season. In the opening minutes, they found themselves down 7-0 with 5:20 left on the first-quarter clock of what became a physical game.
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Later, MHS trailed 9-2 but rallied back to have the score tied at 11 once the buzzer sounded to end the frame as MHS outscored the Lady Tigers, 11-4 in the final 4:22 of the opening quarter.
"I've told teams forever that you can weather the first three or four minutes of the ball game, whether you are up or they are up, you just have to play consistent," Overstake said. "We had plenty of opportunities in the paint, we just didn't put it in the basket.
"It was just a matter of getting the girls settled down. When we did get the ball inside and a couple breakaways from Shania, we tied the score."
McClain's first-quarter scoring began with Katy Unger putting MHS on the board with a put-back bucket, followed by a jumper from Tara Karnes off a pass from Shania Massie. Thirty-three seconds later, Karnes added another basket, and Lauren Rayburn tied the game at 9-9 with a 3-pointer at the 2:36 mark.
Massie led all scorers with a game-high 13 points, followed by Karnes with 10 and Unger with eight. The fourth and final scorer for MHS, Rayburn, ended with seven points.
After two points by UHS, Unger tied the quarter scoring at 11 with two free throws.
MHS (11-12) trailed by two points at halftime at 23-21 but took the lead with 7:11 left in the second frame off a 3-pointer by Massie, eventually taking an 18-13 advantage with a put back by Unger and a layup by Massie with 6:10 remaining in the first half.
After UHS scored six consecutive points to regain the lead at 19-18, Massie tied it with a free throw, but UHS was there again, this time leading 23-19 following back-to-back buckets. Rayburn brought MHS closer with two free throws to end the scoring in the first half.
The Lady Tigers saw themselves in the lead following the completion of the third frame as they tallied five consecutive points to start the third with points in the paint by Karnes and a 3-pointer from Massie to put MHS back out front at 26-23 with 6:56 left in the quarter.
From there, Rayburn and Unger combined for six points, as MHS eventually led 32-30 to begin the final frame.
In the fourth, MHS eventually built a 36-32 lead with points by Karnes and Massie, but five straight points from the Lady Shermans put them ahead 37-36 with 4:41 left in regulation.
Later, Massie tied the score at 37 with a free throw, but each team eventually made another free throw to eventually set up the aforementioned final shot of UHS.
MHS finished 9-of-18 from the free-throw line, while UHS was 6-of-8.
The Lady Tigers had no seniors this season, so the lineup will return for next season, as Overstake spoke about the Lady Tigers' path this year and looking forward to next season.
"If you look at the start of our season we played teams who became No. 1 or No. 2 seeds," he said. "We've come a long way. Again, we made great strides and gave ourselves a chance to win the ball game, but we didn't execute enough on our end with the turnovers and gave them too many opportunities.
"It's going to be a big difference this summer if we get our 10 days in together, so they can have that much more time together on the floor. If they all make a little bit more improvement from here to the summer and when they get to practice next fall, no matter what the improvement is, it's going to be a tremendous difference from where we started off at the beginning of this year."
The Lady Shermans move to the semifinal round of the Division II SE District tournament.
The 40-38 loss to the Lady Shermans in their Division II SE District sectional final at Zane Trace High School came to fruition as McClain's Tara Karnes tied the game at 38 with 1:06 left in regulation.
The final play for UHS (15-8) began with just over 33 seconds left on the clock as Alexia Overly took the inbounds pass to the top of the key and kept the spot until the clock hit 10.0. She then raced her way to the left side of the court and passed the ball to Taylor Overly in the corner behind the 3-point line.
Taylor Overly dribbled a couple steps and shot the ball, only to see it bounce off the left side of the rim. Flautt grabbed the rebound, while wrestling it away from a McClain player, turned and twisted slightly, and while surrounded by two MHS defenders, watched the ball tap the right side of the rim and just slightly off the glass, then through the hoop.
A celebration ensued by UHS, but the Lady Tigers called a timeout with 1.8 on the clock. The Lady Tigers' final possession didn't add up to points, ending their season.
"The loss wasn't for lack of effort on our girls' part because they really played hard," MHS head coach Dennis Overstake, who surpassed 500 career coaching wins this season, said. "When you look at the first time we played them in the fifth game of the season, and to (Saturday), I think we made great strides getting to this ball game, with a team that was capable of competing with them."
Flautt and Alexia Overly each led UHS with 11 points, followed by Mallory Retherford with nine.
"You have to give Unioto credit," Overstake said. "On that last shot, she (Flautt) jumped over our backside person and made a twisting shot and got the ball to go through the basket."
Getting to this point of the season for the Lady Tigers was a journey full of ups, downs and lots of improvement from the start of the season until the final buzzer rang at ZTHS.
MHS began the year losing five of their first six games (including a loss to UHS) but completed the regular season with six consecutive wins. For the game, MHS shot 31 percent from the field (13-of-42), while UHS was 16-of-44 (36 percent).
"Everybody thinks this is a tough loss, and it is a tough loss, but it would have been much tougher if we lost to them the way we did at the beginning of the season," Overstake said. "We are a much better team than the way we played them at the beginning of the season.
"We came here and gave ourselves a chance, and holding a team like this to 40 points … we gave ourselves a chance, we just didn't execute enough offensively."
The path to the final seconds of the game on Saturday somewhat resembled the Lady Tigers' entire season. In the opening minutes, they found themselves down 7-0 with 5:20 left on the first-quarter clock of what became a physical game.
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Later, MHS trailed 9-2 but rallied back to have the score tied at 11 once the buzzer sounded to end the frame as MHS outscored the Lady Tigers, 11-4 in the final 4:22 of the opening quarter.
"I've told teams forever that you can weather the first three or four minutes of the ball game, whether you are up or they are up, you just have to play consistent," Overstake said. "We had plenty of opportunities in the paint, we just didn't put it in the basket.
"It was just a matter of getting the girls settled down. When we did get the ball inside and a couple breakaways from Shania, we tied the score."
McClain's first-quarter scoring began with Katy Unger putting MHS on the board with a put-back bucket, followed by a jumper from Tara Karnes off a pass from Shania Massie. Thirty-three seconds later, Karnes added another basket, and Lauren Rayburn tied the game at 9-9 with a 3-pointer at the 2:36 mark.
Massie led all scorers with a game-high 13 points, followed by Karnes with 10 and Unger with eight. The fourth and final scorer for MHS, Rayburn, ended with seven points.
After two points by UHS, Unger tied the quarter scoring at 11 with two free throws.
MHS (11-12) trailed by two points at halftime at 23-21 but took the lead with 7:11 left in the second frame off a 3-pointer by Massie, eventually taking an 18-13 advantage with a put back by Unger and a layup by Massie with 6:10 remaining in the first half.
After UHS scored six consecutive points to regain the lead at 19-18, Massie tied it with a free throw, but UHS was there again, this time leading 23-19 following back-to-back buckets. Rayburn brought MHS closer with two free throws to end the scoring in the first half.
The Lady Tigers saw themselves in the lead following the completion of the third frame as they tallied five consecutive points to start the third with points in the paint by Karnes and a 3-pointer from Massie to put MHS back out front at 26-23 with 6:56 left in the quarter.
From there, Rayburn and Unger combined for six points, as MHS eventually led 32-30 to begin the final frame.
In the fourth, MHS eventually built a 36-32 lead with points by Karnes and Massie, but five straight points from the Lady Shermans put them ahead 37-36 with 4:41 left in regulation.
Later, Massie tied the score at 37 with a free throw, but each team eventually made another free throw to eventually set up the aforementioned final shot of UHS.
MHS finished 9-of-18 from the free-throw line, while UHS was 6-of-8.
The Lady Tigers had no seniors this season, so the lineup will return for next season, as Overstake spoke about the Lady Tigers' path this year and looking forward to next season.
"If you look at the start of our season we played teams who became No. 1 or No. 2 seeds," he said. "We've come a long way. Again, we made great strides and gave ourselves a chance to win the ball game, but we didn't execute enough on our end with the turnovers and gave them too many opportunities.
"It's going to be a big difference this summer if we get our 10 days in together, so they can have that much more time together on the floor. If they all make a little bit more improvement from here to the summer and when they get to practice next fall, no matter what the improvement is, it's going to be a tremendous difference from where we started off at the beginning of this year."
The Lady Shermans move to the semifinal round of the Division II SE District tournament.