Left for dead, Spartans battle back and take lead in fourth quarter before Vais and Lady Bombers quell run
By Drew Herron - AJ/NT Sports / Feb. 22, 2014
ADAIR РThere is an enduring clich̩ in the sports world that
speaks to the difficulty that exists in trying to beat a singular team for a
third time in the same season.
After prevailing again over Exira-EHK 55-51 in Friday night’s
1A Regional semifinal, No. 8-ranked Adair-Casey can probably attest to that.
The Lady Bombers led by as much as 14 points in the second
half, and teetered on disaster in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter as
AC trailed by three (50-47) with less than 1:20 to play and the season on the
line.
That’s when big-time players make big-time plays, and AC
senior London Vais was ready to fill that role.
Vais, the state’s third leading scorer at 26 PPG, hit a
3-pointer from the left wing with 1:09 remaining to pull the Lady Bombers even
at 50-50. About 30 seconds later, she was sent to the free throw line and hit
2-of-2, pushing Adair-Casey ahead for good, and into Monday night’s Region 8
final against Kingsley-Pierson.
Vais finished with 29 points to lead all scorers, including
the team’s final eight points.
“Confidence…that’s what it is,” AC coach Cory Bartz says of
Vais. “She’s confident in herself, and her teammates have confidence in her.
That was a huge lift, and it might have been what sparked the finish for us.”
Keeping a lid on Vais was primary focus for the Spartans,
but in this instance there was no good defensive answer.
“There is a reason she is one of the best players in the
state, and she showed that tonight,” Exira-EHK coach Tom Petersen said of Vais.
“She put the team on her back. It’s a younger team and you can see they were
looking for someone to get the ball to. She stepped up, and that’s what great
players do.”
It was a cogent end to a rocky fourth quarter for the Lady
Bombers.
AC started strong from the opening tip, forcing Exira-EHK
into committing 24 turnovers in the first half, and leading 28-19 at the break.
Moreover, the Spartans didn’t hit a shot until more than midway through the
third quarter when senior Sydney Parker stopped the bleeding and put EEHK on a path
to a run of its own.
Exira-EHK would finish the frame on a 10-4 run, and went
about chipping away.
In the fourth, the Spartans implemented an aggressive
defensive press, and it changed things dramatically. With 6:38 remaining, Parker look an assist
from Mara Burmeister in for a lay-up to
knot the game at 40, and about two minutes later the Spartans took their first
ever lead when Burmeister converted a pair of free throw attempts to push EEHK
out front 46-44.
It was the press, the bread-and-butter of Spartans’
basketball, that gave them a chance to fight back from a 14-point deficit.
“I think our pressure got to them, absolutely it did,” coach
Petersen says. “We were waiting for times to do it, it’s just that we had too
many girls in foul trouble.”
It was an especially frustrating stretch for the Lady
Bombers, who felt like they had Exira-EHK on the ropes and ready to be put to
bed.
“One or two more baskets and we could have pushed the lead
to 16 (points), and then maybe they put their heads down and quit for the
night,” coach Bartz says of EEHK. “But they regrouped and put a lot of pressure
on us, and we didn’t handle it very well. We were preaching composure,
composure, composure, and in the end it paid off.”
The pendulum would swing back, as over the final 2:40, Vais
would seize control, hitting a 3-ball, a field goal +1, and four straight free
throw attempts to seal the win.
Exira-EHK had its chances, but simply could not completely
get over the hump after fighting for so long from behind.
“It’s never comfortable against Exira-EHK,” coach Bartz
says. “You can be ahead by 25 (points), and they’re going to have a rally
somewhere. You just need to withstand their punches and try to put some points
on the board and score with them.”
The loss ends an otherwise successful season for the
Spartans, who hang it up at 17-6.
“I’m proud of the
gals, a lot of teams probably would have folded its tents,” coach Petersen
says. “To give us a shot to win it in the fourth quarter, that’s all you can
ask for. Our kids battled, we just came up short.”
Adair-Casey will now head to Monday night’s Regional final
meeting at Manning with Kingsley-Pierson (17-7). This group of Lady Bombers
will work to get back to the State Tournament for the first time since 1992,
and the first time in the 5-on-5 game.
Game Scoring (02/21)
EXIRA-EHK (17-6): Rachel Smith 18, Mara Burmeister 10,
Sydney Parker 8, Kennedy Madsen 6, Claire Paulsen 3, Maggie Rasmussen 3, Rachel
Walker 3 Free Throws: 12/15
ADAIR-CASEY (22-3): London Vais 29, Zoey Dinkla 9, Danni
McCorkel 9, Anna Mulder 4, Emma Ferguson 2, Shelby Sorensen 2, Miranda Plowman
2 Free Throws: 16/26
#exira-ehk #iowaprep #iahsbkb
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