In our last home game of the season, the Northland Cougars came to play. As an extra incentive, our girls wanted our three seniors, Bailee Pender, Emily Wilson and Karen Karasevich to win their last home game of their Northland career.
The game was intense from the tip-off. It had to be our most physical game of the year. Lutheran North's team is composed of speed and size, but we felt that we matched up well with them. Lutheran North's Lauren Eickemeyer (1st Team All-District selection last year) started out the game on fire hitting her first 3 shots. Northland's Brittany Flowers also began the game making 2 of her first 3 shots, one of which was a three pointer, for a total of 5 points in the 1 st period. After one, the score was tied 12-12. The same type of play ensued in the 2 nd period and at half, Northland was only leading by 1 point, 22-21. The second half was just as intense as the first half with both teams committing 10 fouls each. At the end of the 3 rd period, NCS still held on to a slim lead, 32-31. Lutheran North rallied in the fourth coming from behind, and with 2:30 left in the game, the Lions were ahead by 8 points. As we called our 4th timeout, our goal was to fight until the game was over. The girls came out and were tenacious on defense. We controlled the boards on both ends and brought ourselves back to within 2 points with just over 1 minute to play. We put on a full court press and forced LHN to turn the ball over. With less than 24 seconds to play, and down by 2 points, we used our last timeout. Emily Wilson, with an assist from Bailee Pender, hit a game tying shot with about 6 seconds left in the game. Our full court press then forced another turnover. As we threw the ball inbounds, Bailee Pender was fouled with 2.6 seconds left on the clock. She hit both of her free throws to seal the win.
I was extremely proud of the way our girls continued to battle even when we were down at the end of the game. It was a great night for our seniors and a great win for the team, hopefully building a little confidence as the district tournament approaches.
As a team, we shot 15 for 37 (41%) from the field, 1 for 7 (14%) from behind the arc, and 11 for 14 (79%) from the line. Brittany Flowers led the team with 8 rebounds, 6 assists and took a charge. Bailee Pender led the team with 3 steals, Paige Cornwell had a blocked shot and Kelsey Hickman also took a charge. We limited our turnovers to 16 this game which was crucial down the line. Bailee and Brittany also led the team with 15 points each. This was a team win with everyone contributing at different times throughout the game. Our 2 other seniors also had big nights. Emily Wilson had a huge game all around contributing with 7 rebounds and 6 points. Most importantly, her defense against LHN's Lauren Eickemeyer won the game for us tonight. Karen Karasevich also played well, especially on defense, forcing 3 turnovers and pulling down 5 rebounds.
