Fairbanks senior Reese Poling (4) goes up for a shot against Pleasant. The Lady Panthers saw their season end with a tournament loss.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
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The point differential at the end did not really match how well the Fairbanks girls basketball team played during a upset bid of Pleasant.
When the final seconds ticked off, the Marion County team earned a 45-34 victory in the opening round of the Division III sectional tournament on Tuesday at Pleasant.
The Lady Panthers, though, were right with the Lady Spartans until the final two minutes when they were forced to gamble in an attempt to rally.
Pleasant went into the game as the fourth seed, while Fairbanks was seeded 21st.
“We put up a good fight and we didn’t pay attention to the seeding,” senior Rachael Hoover said.
“Our energy never wavered,” added senior Reese Poling.
The Lady Panthers (7-16) held the lead at the end of each of the first two quarters, thanks to a stifling 2-3 zone that kept the Lady Spartans off-balance.
Pleasant was just six-of-22 from the field in the first half and the Lady Panthers forced 10 turnovers.
Fairbanks struggled at times to put points on the board during the opening quarter.
However, an inside basket by Poling with less than a a minute remaining had the Lady Panthers leading 8-4.
A six-point run midway through the second quarter pushed the FHS lead to 17-12.
A drive down the lane by Hoover started the spurt. A free throw from Ally Gearheart and a three-point goal by Hoover followed.
Pleasant battled back to tie the game at 17.
A pair of charity tosses from freshman Claire Meihis gave Fairbanks a 19-17 halftime edge.
“The zone worked well for us in the first half, but it got away from us in the third quarter,” head coach Landon Fraker said.
A rebound basket by Mara Vicari opened the third quarter, but the Lady Panthers then went nearly six minutes without a point.
“That has sort of been our ‘MO’ this year in the third quarter,” Fraker said, adding he was not sure what the difference in points was during that time.
FHS did outscore its opponents in the third quarter, but in its regular-season losses it had been outscored by 60 points.
A rebound basket by Avah Steele capped nine straight points by Pleasant and gave it a 26-21 lead.
A layup by Gearheart ended the Lady Panther scoring drought.
Anna Mueller’s stickback with four seconds on the clock left Fairbanks trailing 28-25 with one quarter to play.
The Lady Spartans came out quickly in the fourth quarter. They tallied the first six points for a 34-25 advantage.
Fairbanks battled its way back and an inside basket by Claudia Mueller cut the lead to 36-30 with 3:30 on the timer.
Two-pointers from Maddie Murphy and Olivia Pratt gave Pleasant a double-digit lead and the Lady Panthers could not recover.
“We put up a good fight,” Hoover said. “We made some mistakes, but I am proud of the how we played.”
“In the first half we did what we talked about before the game about doing,” Poling said.
Fraker was not surprised with how the Lady Panthers played as it was something he has seen all year, no matter how the record finished.
“You would like to have seen more wins, but the girls worked hard all year,” Fraker said. “They have been enjoyable and easy to coach.”
Meihls finished with nine points and Hoover had seven points.
Anna Mueller, Poling and Hoover each had six rebounds.
Brooklyn Davis led Pleasant (19-4) with 13 points.
Fairbanks
Boehm 2-0-4, Poling 1-0-2, Gearheart 1-1-3, Hoover 2-2-7, Meihls 3-2-9, Vicari 2-0-5, C. Mueller 1-0-2, A. Mueller 1-0-2. Three-point goals: Hoover, Meihls, Vicari.
Pleasant
Pratt 3-2-8, Obenour 0-2-2, Williams 1-0-3, Waddel 2-1-5, Steele 5-1-12, Davis 4-5-13, Murphy 1-0-2. Three-point goals: Williams, Steele.