Girls 2A Basketball – Aberdeen Edges Black Hills in Thriller

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By: Daniel Hargrove

The Black Hills Lady Wolves took on the Aberdeen Bobcats in an Evergreen League 2A match up Tuesday night in Aberdeen.  To say that this game was a tail of two halves would be quite the understatement.

The first half, mainly the first quarter, was absolutely dominated by the Lady Wolves as it seemed that every shot junior guard Izzy Campbell put up was going in and every rebound was taken in by Hope Mortensen.  By the end of the first quarter Black Hills had a comfortable 18 to five lead.

The Lady Wolves were also playing stifling defense in the first half with six steals and many times they used them as opportunities to score in transition against the young Bobcats team. Black Hills increased their lead to 14 as they went into half time leading 32 to 18.

Now for the bad news, the second half was a blue print to any team young or old, experienced or not on how to overcome a seemingly impossible deficit. Fourteen points is hardly impossible but the entire flow and feel of the first half did not show any signs of change for the home Bobcats.

The Bobcats changed that thought in a hurry getting their best player in the game; Mo Donavan led all scorers on the night due to her 11 point third quarter.  Her entire team fed off her energy and even though her scoring was limited to 4 points in the fourth quarter due to relentless, ball denying defense by Sydney Sauls, the rest of the Bobcats were emotionally back in the game.

Now only down by seven it seemed like every bounce was going Aberdeen’s way. Shots that seemed perfect for the Lady Wolves rimmed out and rebounds were now not only falling to Mortensen but a few were going to the Bobcats as well. Black Hills intensity did not falter at all going into the final minutes of the game.

The Bobcats took the lead with a few minutes left due to great individual isolation drives and three point plays by freshman Emily Fisher and Aberdeen’s lone senior Makenzie Smith. The Lady Wolves countered by getting huge shots by Campbell and Taylor Pottschmidt to keep them close.

A few crazy possessions later and the score was Aberdeen 51, Black Hills 49 with Hannah Tometich at the at the free throw line for the Bobcats with 6.2 seconds left and a chance to put the game out of reach. The gym grew so quiet that my radio partner and I hushed as well for fear of being the only sounds audible to humans in Aberdeen’s home court.

Tometich missed the first of the one and one though despite the lack of decibels and Black Hills came down with the rebound and started up the court when their Head Coach Robin Johnson called time-out with exactly three seconds left. Every stomach in the gym was twisting into knots.

The teams came out of their huddles for the last play of the game. Campbell caught a pass in the corner and heaved a quick off balance shot that rimmed off but Pottschmidt gathered the rebound and got off a quick shot two milliseconds before the buzzer went off.

It looked good, it even went half way down but it too rimmed out and Aberdeen survived with the unlikely comeback win. The tail of two halves ended with a bounce of the ball that in the first half surely would have gone in for the Lady Wolves. Final score Aberdeen 51, Black Hills 49.

About the Author

Daniel is a recent graduate of Washington State University’s Broadcasting program and is currently living Hoquiam, working very part time for Grays Harbor Radio in Aberdeen and doing anything he can that involves local sports. He blogs at http://hargy13.wordpress.com/.

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