Grant finds fantastic favor with number 13
They battled for 13th place in a girls basketball tournament Thursday morning.
Each team had played 13 games before the post-breakfast clash. Grant was 4-9, as was Prairie Ridge, coached by a man — Matt Timmerman — with 13 letters in his name.
The Lady Mustangs Holiday Classic consolation game at Mundelein was certainly not for anybody who had even mild triskaidekaphobia — fear of you-know-which number.
It gets eerier, folks. Grant, paced by senior forward Donnie Taggart's 13 points, won 46-42 in overtime.
Wolves senior guard Haley Ljunggren popped for a team-high … 13 points.
Nobody would have been surprised had a black cat been whistled for an over-and-back violation, after entering the gym under a ladder.
Fortunately for Grant, the 5-foot-10 Taggart personified good fortune when she hit her only 3-point attempt of the game. It came in OT, giving the Bulldogs (5-9) a 40-39 lead after PR needed only seven seconds to score the first 2 points of the extra session.
“That surprised me — that shot from her,” Timmerman admitted. “We didn't expect her to take it. That was huge, so huge for them.”
The Wolves (4-10) tied it at 42-42, on a pair of free throws from junior guard Haleigh Danek with 51 ticks left. But Grant enjoyed a highly caffeinated stretch from there until the final buzzer, using a steal-and-assist sequence from freshman guard Kaylie Kanzler (7 points, 5 rebounds) after a Taggart put-back bucket. Junior forward Nicole Swanson (8 points, 6 rebounds) netted the game's final points, at 0:19, after clutching Kanzler's clutch pass.
“Our girls made it happen,” said Grant coach John Eiduke, whose girls (2-2 in the tourney) trailed 22-16 at the half and produced a 12-0 third-quarter run to take a 30-28 lead. “Their will there, late in overtime, came out. It was great to see.”
Grant junior guard Morgan Jahnke noticed her grandfather, William Jahnke, had arrived after the half. Her performance in the third and fourth quarters?
Grand.
The 5-6 Jahnke poured in all 12 of her points after the break, with 8 coming in that 12-0 surge. She nailed a pair of 3's in the third quarter and canned another triple at 5:33 of the fourth. Her first 3-pointer scooted around the rim at least three times before finally heading south, through twine.
But Jahnke, who couldn't hide her smile shortly after that shot's dizzying trip, singled out Taggart's OT 3-pointer as the basket of the morning.
“That's the shot I'll remember,” said Jahnke, who also collected a key steal in the third quarter, a turnover that set up a Kassie Stimpson field goal. “Donnie makes a shot like that every other game.”
Taggart also grabbed a team-high 10 boards and had 3 steals.
Wolves senior forward Taylor Smerecky, who scored the final 2 points of regulation, finished with 9 points and 9 rebounds; sophomore teammate Marisa Gerstbrein contributed 9 points and 6 boards.
“I was proud of the way we played in the first half,” Timmerman said. “Grant's defense frustrated us after halftime. Grant's players packed it in, dared us to shoot. We did that. But our shots – they weren't falling.”
A relieved and happy Eiduke was reminded he had nearly a full day ahead of him after the victory.
“What am I going to do?” he said. “The players are going to meet for a team function at a player's house this afternoon. I plan to go. I'll probably just sit in a corner and smile.”