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Lady Panthers drop valiant tournament battle
March 05, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Pictured left - Fairbanks’ Nora Boerger (right) is fouled while going up for a basket Wednesday evening against Utica. The Redskins ended FHS’ season with a 49-45 victory during the Division III district semifinals at Olentangy Liberty.
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By TIM MILLER
When the girls basketball teams from Fairbanks and Utica high schools walked off the court at Olentangy Liberty around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, athletes from each outfit knew they had been in a ball game.
Both squads appeared to leave everything they had on the floor during a Division III district semifinal contest as players in red and white jerseys battled hard from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
When the timer reached zero for the last time, the fourth-seeded Redskins from Licking County had something to celebrate as they held on to win, 49-45. That advanced them to Saturday’s finals, where they will face No. 1-ranked Pleasant.
Even though disappointed in the loss, the 15th-seeded Panthers had come close to upsetting yet a third higher-ranked team along the tournament trail.
“We got ourselves into a hole in the second quarter when Utica’s defense stopped us,” said Fairbanks coach Lori Phelps. “However, we pulled ourselves together in the second half and made this game a battle.”
The Lady Panthers, who ended the season with an 11-12 record, got out to a great start and climbed to a 10-2 lead.
During that stretch, Emily Boerger and Sarah Grunert both knocked down three-point shots and everything appeared to be going the Panthers’ way.
Utica began pressing during the final minutes of the opening period and took advantage of a few FHS turnovers.
As such, the Redskins were able to go on a 10-2 run of their own, tying the contest at 12-all by the end of the stanza.
The Redskins turned up the defensive heat in the ensuing period, shutting off both passing and driving lanes before Fairbanks could find an open seam.
“We started standing around and we didn’t move the ball very well,” admitted Phelps.
Bridgit Davis buried a pair of three-pointers as the Skins took the lead and built it to 20-14.
A couple of free throws by Gracie Burrell and Lyndsey DeRoads helped pull FHS within 20-18.
However, it was the Lady Panthers’ struggles from the charity stripe that told much of the first half story.
Fairbanks made only two-of-nine offerings from the line during the half, prompting Phelps to note, “free throw shooting has been iffy for us all year. You just can’t shoot free throws like we did in the first half.”
Those misguided offerings led to an anemic six-point second quarter that put FHS down 26-18 at the half.
To their credit, the Lady Panthers had anything but surrender on their minds when they took the floor to start the third set.
A trifecta by DeRoads narrowed their gap to five and her two free throws later reduced Utica’s lead to 28-23.
The next few minutes saw both teams come up with empty possessions on either turnovers or missed shots.
During one, four-second span of play there were five turnovers as both squads were whistled for five-second inbounds infractions and FHS threw the ball away on another play from under the basket.
Once the turnover bug-a-boos were settled, the Lady Panthers mounted a fierce comeback.
A bucket by Burrell, a charity toss from Ember Ryan and a three-pointer by Emily Boerger pulled Fairbanks within 33-31 by the buzzer.
Nora Boerger and DeRoads both connected on free throws early in the final set. DeRoads then rebounded one of her own misses and put the ball back in the basket for a 37-36 FHS lead.
Hitting the charity tosses helped give Fairbanks its first advantage since the opening quarter but the first-half foul shooting would eventually prove to be part of the margin of defeat.
After the first half misfortunes at the line, the Lady Panthers made 11-of-19 in the second half.
Fairbanks’ final lead of the night came when DeRoads bounced an entry pass into Hanna Abdalla, whose basket produced a 39-38 edge.
The score was later tied at 40-40 on a free throw by DeRoads.
The Redskins never relinquished the upper hand after they took a 41-40 edge on a free throw by Kandis Walker.
FHS stayed within a couple of points over the final minutes. However, the local squad suffered a handful of turnovers and missed some open shots down the stretch.
Fairbanks then had to foul in order to stop a rapidly-expiring clock. As such, Utica padded its lead to 49-43 before a shot at the buzzer by Grunert provided the final margin.
Phelps wasn’t too unhappy with her team’s 19 turnovers, although too many came at inopportune times.
“We felt if we were around 20 or so, we’d be OK,” she said. “They just came at critical times. Maybe we should have pulled the ball out but our strength has always been to attack the basket ... that’s where some of our turnovers occurred.”
“We’ve lived and died shooting from the outside and we were four-of-17 beyond the arc,” she added, noting that FHS hit only 26 percent of all its shots for the game.
Utica
Walker 4-5-13, Londot 4-2-10, Davis 3-0-8, Harvey 1-4-6, Lugar 2-1-5, Corbett 1-2-4, Vickers 0-3-3, Gorius 0-0-0. Totals 15-17-49.
Three-point goals: Davis 2.
Fairbanks
E. Boerger 4-2-12, DeRoads 2-6-11, Grunert 3-0-7, N. Boerger 1-2-4, Ryan 1-2-4, Burrell 1-1-3, Dunlap 1-0-2, Ha. Abdalla 1-0-2. Totals 14-13-45.
Three-point goals: E. Boerger 2, DeRoads 1, Grunert 1.
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