Wednesday, November 20, 2019

30 Foot Shot Sinks JH Tiger Girls

A 30 foot shot at the buzzer sank Worth County’s junior high girls last Tuesday night in the first round of the NEN Junior High Tournament as they fell to Avenue City 19-17.

The Tigers and Aces have always played close games over the years in Ravenwood, and Tuesday was no exception. Fireworks erupted in the first half as Coach Hadley Roberts was ejected by Referee Dan Gallagher for protesting a foul call and Les New, who coaches the boys team, managed the girls in his absence. Meanwhile, the girls could not buy a bucket in the first half and fell behind 8-4 at the break.

The Tigers fell behind 9-4, but then Kara-Jean Staton’s triple and Kynah Steele’s shot tied the game up at 9. The game was tied up at 11 before Kayla Beem put the Aces in front 13-11 after three.

Brooklyn Richardson  hit from the high post and Autumn Cousatte hit from the right wing to put the Tigers in front 15-13 before Beem knotted it up again. Both sides had chances in the last two minutes, but neither side could convert until Saige Blake hit a free throw with 1:11 left to put Avenue City up 16-15.

For the next 35 seconds, neither side could hang on to the ball before Autumn Cousatte finally got a steal for the Tigers with 34 seconds left. Kynah Steele found an open driving lane and converted with 22 seconds left to put Worth County up 17-16.

Avenue City had a chance to answer, but Beem missed with 9 seconds left and the ball went out of bounds off Avenue City. Worth County had to inbound, but couldn’t get it in and it went out of bounds off of them back to Avenue City. The Aces tried to get it in the post with 3 seconds left, but Abbi Brown got a steal with three seconds left.

Worth County took a timeout and aired it out deep in an effort to run out the clock, but Beem stole the pass and launched a 3-pointer from 30 feet out that was nothing but net to give the Aces the win.

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