Rosary pulls out OT win over St. Edward
Senior forward Zoe Ketterman scored 4 of her team's 5 points in overtime as Rosary's girls basketball team escaped with a 50-47 Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division victory over St. Edward Tuesday night in Aurora.
Ketterman, who scored 13 points while adding 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots, gave the Royals (4-2, 1-1) the lead for good at 47-45 with a basket inside just 15 seconds into the 4-minute extra session.
Less than a minute later, she returned to hit a pair of free throws to extend the Royals' lead to 49-45.
"Those four quick points helped to get us ahead," said Rosary coach John Rutter. "She's tough in the post - tough to guard. I'm proud of her. To her credit, she got a little frustrated earlier but she got it together and bounced back."
The offensive boost came at the right time for the Royals after junior forward Ann Molenhouse fouled out with 29 seconds remaining in regulation.
Molenhouse led all players with 16 points.
Samantha Ottinger (9 points) knocked down a pair of free throws in the final minute for the Green Wave (1-7, 0-4) to force overtime.
However, St. Edward misfired on all 7 of its field-goal attempts in the extra session, including 3 straight misses during the final 22 chaotic seconds.
"The last one from my angle looked like it was dead on," Rutter said of Mia Castro's 3-point attempt in the closing seconds. "We were hanging on."
Brooke Biggins scored a team-high 12 points for the Green Wave, while Castro and Madeline Ellsworth chipped in with 8 and 7 points, respectively.
"The effort on the court was outstanding tonight," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "We forced them (Royals) into some turnovers (25). At times, our offense looked better since we've been struggling with our timing.
"We just didn't hit the shots we needed to hit. We weren't upset with poor shot selection. It was people taking them in the situations they normally do - they just didn't fall."
St. Edward led 19-11 after 1 quarter and 27-26 at halftime before taking a 37-34 advantage into the fourth quarter.
With the game tied at 43-43, freshman guard Macey DeMoss' (4 points, 6 rebounds) steal and layup gave Rosary a 45-43 lead with 1:21 remaining in regulation before the Green Wave battled back.
"The effort from these girls is unbelievable," said Dawson. "I can't ask them to play any harder."
Sophomore forward Emily Hurst contributed 6 points and a game-high 17 rebounds for Rosary.
"I think our intensity on defense (was the key)," said Ketterman. "That's what we said at the beginning of the game - defense was going to win it for us so we needed to turn it up in overtime, box out and talk a lot more."
"It's a work in progress," said first-year Royals coach Rutter. "They're learning an all-new style. It's going to take us some time but I'm confident that if we keep working hard, good things will happen."