Worth County's junior high girls won in a frantic finish as all of the chaos made perfect sense in a 22-19 win as Worth County won their first game of the year. Worth County won two games last year. St. Gregory's was down 22-12 to Worth County with 3:30 left, but they had a frantic rally to cut it to 22-17 with 13.3 seconds left. They had a chance to make it closer, but missed a one and one. Grace Schottel was trapped in the backcourt as St. Gregory's was pressing and trying to get the ball back; however, Grace got turned around and scored in her own basket, cutting St. Gregory's lead to three. As players and coaches stood around in shock trying to process what had just happened, the clock ran out and Worth County came away with the win. She didn't plan it out that way; however, 13.3 seconds can be an eternity when the other team is frantically pressing trying to get the ball back. It turned out to be the perfect way to run out the clock -- using the element of human surprise to one's advantage. In college, the clock stops after a made basket in the last two minutes; however, in high school, the clock keeps going after a made basket.
But everything ended well despite a few new grey hairs on Coach Josh Smith's head after that ending. Both Grace and Quinci Schottel led the team with six points as Worth County used a balanced attack to beat the visitors. Grace, only a 7th grader, came off the bench midway through the first quarter with the score tied at 2 to give the Tigers a spark; she scored off her deadly left-handed drive off an inbounds play with two minutes left to put the Tigers up 4-2 while Brooklyn White followed with a banked shot from the wing with a defender in her face at the buzzer to make it 6-2 after one quarter. Payton Adwell then went coast to coast like a runaway freight train and Grace got a putback to make it 10-2.
But then St. Gregory's got more aggressive by poking, grabbing, and tearing at the ball on outlets following defensive rebounds and they climbed back in, getting it tied at 10. But then Quincy Schottel got a drive and kickout to Payton Adwell for a score and then followed by banking home a 3-pointer as nobody picked her up on defense. Grace then scored off an inbounds play to make it 17-12 and then the Falcons missed three point-blank looks that would have brought them back to three at the close of the third. Grace picked up her fourth foul, but then Kristen Ross scored off a backdoor inbounds play and Quincy Schottel banked home her second 3-pointer of the night to make it 22-12.
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