Antioch's comeback negates Round Lake's shot-making flair
When Griselda Martinez threw in a halfcourt shot at the end of the third quarter, it seemed like it was going to be Round Lake's day.
The senior guard got her third 3-pointer of the day in dramatic fashion and that gave the host Panthers a ton of confidence, as well as a 3-point advantage over Antioch, heading into the fourth quarter.
It was a far cry from the nature of the first game in this series earlier in the season. Round Lake got blown out at Antioch, and lost by 20.
"When that (halfcourt shot) went in, I did think we were going to pull this one out," Martinez said. "We played a really good game. It was really intense from beginning to end. But they're a good team and we tried our best. They just pushed a little harder."
Just one point harder.
Antioch withstood the momentum Round Lake took into the fourth quarter from the halfcourt shot from Martinez. The Sequoits also made up the 3-point deficit that the halfcourt shot produced and pulled out a 43-42 Northern Lake County Conference victory over Round Lake.
Antioch, which improves to 10-14 overall and 5-6 in the NLCC, held Round Lake to just 4 points in the fourth quarter. The Panthers drop to 7-17 and 2-9 in league play.
"This was a lot closer than we would like," Antioch coach Tim Borries said. "We're going to give all the credit to (Round Lake). They were ready to play.
"We got off to a good start (Antioch was up 18-11 at the end of the first quarter), but lost momentum and let Round Lake back in it. I told our team that when you let a team believe, anything can happen. They believed and they gave us a fight all the way to the end.
"That single play (the halfcourt shot), it gave them all the momentum and got them believing. We didn't match their intensity. But at the end, you rely on your most experienced girls to pull it out on the offensive end, and we got that. And even though our defense wasn't very sharp for most of the game, it was sharp enough at times to get this victory."
While Antioch's defense was busy holding Round Lake to just 4 fourth-quarter points, the offense got a shot in the arm from veterans Piper Foote and Taylor Feltner. Both guards hit big 3-pointers to give the Sequoits just enough offense.
Foote finished with a team-high 11 points while Feltner had 9 points. Teammate Olivia Ori also scored 9 points.
"We put in a different offense at halftime because what we were doing didn't work very well against their zone," Foote said. "That got us some better looks. Our shooters were a lot more open (in the second half) and we were able to get to the basket better, too, and draw fouls."
Free throws ended up making a huge difference in the outcome. Antioch hit 6 of their 13 free throw attempts while Round Lake, which got a game-high 15 points from Martinez and 10 points from Hannah Brooks, did not attempt a single free throw in the game.
"We thought we were going to build off the momentum from Griselda's (halfcourt) shot," Round Lake coach Doug Barnshaw said. "But putting up only 4 points in the fourth quarter and not shooting a free throw for the entire game, if we could have turned either one of those things, certainly that would have increased our odds of winning that game. But the girls played really hard and really good basketball and I was real proud of them for the effort they gave."