Prospect nips Dundee-Crown in double OT to win consolation crown
Prospect needed an additional eight minutes to complete a comeback and win the Komaromy Classic Consolation Championship Saturday.
Trailing host Dundee Crown 42-33 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Knights rallied to tie the contest 51-51 with less than a minute to play in regulation and required double overtime to eek out a 67-61 victory.
Free throws figured prominently in the comeback. Prospect went 18 for 20 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and overtime while only connecting 6 of 15 during the first 24 minutes.
"It would have been a lot less exciting if we had made them all," said Prospect coach Marie Miller.
With 55.1 seconds to play in regulation, Prospect's Abbey Danciu tied the game on an old fashioned three point-play. The senior was fouled on a layup and connected on the subsequent free throw.
In the first overtime, D-C stayed alive by connecting on three free throws. With less than 30 seconds to play and trailing 56-53, Payton Schmidt canned two charity tosses. Teammate Gianine Boado (10 points) was fouled after stealing the inbound pass and hit the second of two free throws to retie the game at 56-all and force the second overtime.
The Chargers took an early 58-56 in the second extra period on - what else - free throws, courtesy of Schmidt. The Knights also returned to the charity stripe to pull back ahead. Two by Ashley Adams tied the game and two by Ellen Sherwood gave Prospect the lead for good, 60-58. Adams led Prospect in scoring with 17 points.
A Danciu (15 points) layup, the only Prospect basket in overtime, extended the lead to 62-58. The Knights scored their remaining points on free throws.
The Chargers (14-5) were in command in the first half with a 33-22 lead at the break. Schmidt scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the first 16 minutes and classmate Katelyn Skibinski tallied 12 of her 19. D-C forced 12 turnovers.
The momentum shifted in the third quarter. Prospect (10-5) scored 11 points in the stanza to D-C's 9 and turned the ball over two times to the Chargers' five.
"We did a good job (going) to the hoop and the lane in the first half. In the second half they turned the pressure up a little bit more in the half-court and instead of making the read, a lot of times we forced options and it led to turnovers," said D-C coach Sarah Miller. "It allowed them one basket at a time to get back in the game. We didn't pay smart basketball when it was needed."
"Coming out like we did (in the first half), we knew we had to come out a little bit stronger in the second half. Dundee-Crown is a great team. They are very disciplined," said Prospect's Miller. "They came out with a little bit more intensity (in the first half) than we did so we needed to match that in the second half and overcome theirs as well."
The Knights started the fourth quarter on an 11-5 run and pulled within 47-46 on an Eliot Dojurtek bucket (12 points) with 3:05 to play.