Lady Devils Tame Tigresses in OT
by Kevin Chlum- News Tribune
January 20, 2010
Lady Devils stay hot, top Tigresses in OT
By Kevin Chlum
PRINCETON — Hall head coach Dave Kain has not been impressed with his team’s play in the fourth quarter this season. The Lady Devils led late Monday night against Rock Falls only to stumble in the fourth quarter. Earlier in the season against Princeton, the Lady Red Devils blew an eight-point lead in the final eight minutes. Tuesday night, the Lady Red Devils saw a nine-point third-quarter lead turn into a two-point deficit entering the fourth quarter. Instead of crumbling in the fourth quarter, Hall erased a six-point deficit in the final 37 seconds to force overtime before pulling out a 56-52 win over the rival Tigresses in NCIC Lincoln Division play.
“That was probably the first time all year — I think there were four minutes to go, three minutes to go and we were down pretty good — that we sucked it up and played hard,” Kain said. “That was the difference, I thought.”
The Lady Red Devils effectively switched from a 3-2 zone to a man-to-man defense in the fourth quarter, and made several critical plays down the stretch to force overtime.
Hillary Klein knocked down a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left on an assist from Jaclyn Kain to cut the deficit to three. Following two missed free throws by Princeton, the Lady Red Devils turned the ball over against Princeton’s press, but Klein stole the ball back and scored to bring Hall within one with 20 seconds left. Princeton senior Katlin Petersen then made 1-of-2 free throws to bring the Princeton lead back to two.
On the other end, Klein took a shot but missed and Claire Faletti grabbed the rebound and missed a putback attempt, but Kelle Nett grabbed her 19th board of the game and scored with 2.6 seconds left. “I think at the end, we started slowing down and taking care of the ball more and getting it inside for easy layups,” said Klein, who scored 16 points. “We all started working together more.” In overtime, Faletti hit a jumper and Kain hit a pair of free throws to give Hall a four-point lead, but five points by C.J. Rhodes and a driving basket by Lacey Jensen tied the game at 52-52. Kain and Nett each knocked down a pair of free throws in the final 49.7 seconds to pull out the win. The Lady Red Devils hit 7-of-8 free throws in overtime.
“Our free throws for the year aren’t very good,” Kain said. “The last three games I don’t think we made 50 percent of them, but down the stretch, that was outstanding. That’s the first time all year we’ve done that.” The Tigresses didn’t have enough left in the tank to make the necessary plays after erasing a nine-point deficit with a 13-2 run to close the third quarter. Molly Stephens scored nine of her team-high 15 points during the run.
Princeton made just 1-of-4 free throws in the final 35 seconds of regulation and missed its final four shots in overtime.
“We missed free throws, for one. We couldn’t get a rebound. We looked tired at the end. We missed way too many easy shots throughout the game — layup after layup,” Princeton coach Spencer Davis said. “We have too much stuff going on other than basketball. Then when a basketball game comes around we’re tired. I don’t know what’s going on, but we had no legs at the end of the game.” The Tigresses expended all their energy erasing the nine-point deficit in the third quarter. The Lady Red Devils built the lead by using their height advantage in the first half. Hall out-rebounded Princeton 25-16 in the first half and gave the ball to its two tallest players. Kain scored eight of her 16 points in the first half, and Nett scored seven of her 13 points in the first half. Hall led 24-21 at halftime and extended the lead to 30-21 on a second-chance basket by Karly Hoscheid with 5:17 left in the third. Kain had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Hall, while Nett added 13 points and 22 rebounds. Stephens came off the bench to lead Princeton with 15 points.
Petersen added 13 points for the Tigresses.
