DRAMA QUEENS
FRANKLIN TWP. — In a game that had a flair for the dramatic, Southern Columbia showed it’s simply the little things that make for happy endings.
In need of a fourth-quarter rally, the Tigers buckled down defensively and capitalized on Bloomsburg’s missed opportunities at the free-throw line to erase a 12-point deficit, force overtime and ultimately win a 64-62 thriller.
The Tigers switched to man defense in the final frame, forcing the Panthers to execute flawlessly. It also led the Tigers into some foul trouble. Fortunately for them, it didn’t come back to bite them as the Panthers (15-3) went 1-for-6 — and 0-for-1 in overtime — at the line, allowing Southern to gain confidence and transition points.
“We’ve been working on our free throws all year like every team in the league. Sometimes you have good nights and sometimes you have bad nights,” Wittman said. “They did what they had to do at the free-throw line and we didn’t.
“I think their confidence and momentum was a little bit higher than ours [in the fourth]. We were losing ours and I think that impacted us late. We just lost a little bit of focus, but I don’t think we were fatigued any.”
The missed points led to the Tigers (17-1) opening up some lanes with their second chances. Alli Griscavage scored from under the hoop, and when taken away, Summer Tillett and Loren Gehret executed from a short distance.
No shot was bigger than Gehret’s tying field goal with 12.5 seconds remaining. The score — sending everyone on Southern’s bench in a frenzy — came off the heels of a Panthers inbound pass to Olivia Hull, who just missed a chance to give Bloomsburg a four-point lead.
Gehret was fouled on the play and missed giving the Tigers their first lead since the second quarter with a shot that bounced out of the rim.
The rally all started with a message from coach Kam Traugh.
“We just had to enforce defensively, go after the loose balls and we were giving away too many second shots on rebounds,” Traugh said. “It was the same problem we had last time, but Evans is a good player. She’s quick and not going to wait around for the ball, she’s going to go after it.
“We had to motivate them to keep playing, keep fighting, and they did. Even if we would have come out with a loss, I would have been proud because they fought until the end.”
Despite missing the go-ahead free throw, Gehret wasn’t deflated any. Instead, she went with something that worked for her during her All-American soccer campaign.
“I needed to calm myself down, and I was used to that with soccer and having to take PKs,” Gehret said. “I just knew if I calmed myself down and go off my memory of my form.”
She was flawless at the line in overtime, going 6-for-6 at the line. She finished with a team-high 23 points.
Griscavage (19 points) — who missed sometime early for foul trouble — and Tillett (15) also had double-digit scoring performances.
The exciting end to regulation couldn’t have been without the Panthers’ explosive play in the third quarter.
With Bryn Zentner giving Bloomsburg the lead with a buzzer-beating field goal, she and the Panthers picked up right where they left off. They opened the second half on a 6-0 run. Then as the Panthers closed in some, Zentner drained the team’s only 3-pointer and came away with a steal and layup for five quick unanswered points.
Zentner scored a game-high 25 points and got some offensive relief from Madeline Evans after halftime. Evans scored 14 of her 18 points after halftime.
Their style of play is something Wittman has come to expect, but he points out others contributing to the team’s great season.
“We had the lead, and let it slip away at the free-throw line and with some errors, but I can’t say enough good things about how the girls played tonight,” Wittman said. “Evans and Zentner have played great all year, but I’m so happy other girls are stepping up for us this time of year.
“Alyssa Shuman did some big things for us tonight.”
All told, the Panthers turned in the best performance by either team in a frame, scoring 23 points. It just wasn’t good enough to get the job done, and it’s something that will linger with the Panthers for quite some time.
“I hate losing. I’m not going to feel good, and I know the girls are going to feel the same way,” Wittman said. “If you’re going to lose, losing to good teams, you have to figure out what’s up.
“We have to go back to the film and see what we didn’t do well and see what we can fix because we play in a very good league and a lot of very good teams. I’m looking to take a positive away from this loss.”
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