St. Vincent girls basketball coach Mel Kirn had a simple message for Zoey Wibbenmeyer in the waning seconds of regulation as the Lady Indians trailed by two.
“I told her to make it hard on the inbounder to get the ball in,” Kirn said. “She did and it was almost a five second call. It was a great play by all involved.”
The Warrior player made a desperation pass, but it went right to Reese Barber, who took the ball in for a lay-up to tie the game with 4.4 seconds left and send the game into overtime.
From there it was all St. Vincent as they outscored Valle Catholic 9-3 in the overtime period and captured the 51-45 victory on Monday.
It brought to an end one of the crazier games Kirn has been a part of in quite a while.
“It was a great game and a lot happened in that game that I can’t think of right now,” Kirn said. “I’m glad that we came out on the right side of things and I thought that our girls never quit.”
Barber and Addie Cates led the way for the Lady Indians with 14 points apiece, while Mary Schwartz chipped in eight points, while Lacey Best and Genevieve Lipe added four points apiece.
Valle Catholic was led by Hannah Fowler, who had 19 points. Kirn said she was a handful throughout the night.
“She is one of the more skilled players in the area and quite a presence inside for them,” Kirn said. “We tried just about everyone on her and we had nine fouls on our posts players alone, all because of Fowler.”
Fowler was 13-14 from the free throw line on the night and 11-12 in the fourth quarter alone, as a parade to the charity stripe was a common theme.
The two teams combined for 60 free throws and 49 fouls in the game. Valle Catholic was 19-26 for the game, while St. Vincent went 13-34.
“I told my assistant coach that this might come down to free throws and in some ways it did, but we also had some key jumpshots,” Kirn said.
Wibbenmeyer made a jumper in the lane and a pair of free throws by Cates gave St. Vincent a 38-34 lead with 1:43 left in regulation. The teams would alternate trips to the free throw line until it looked like Valle Catholic had taken the lead for good.
Rylee Overmann scored putback a missed free throw that gave the Warriors a 42-40 lead with 28 seconds left. Barber came up with heroics seconds later and then the Indians pounced in overtime.
Cates made a jump shot on the first possession and then Schwartz stole the inbounds and it resulted in a jumper from Barber. Cates came back with a lay-up with 2:25 left in overtime. St. Vincent hit enough free throws down the stretch to seal the game.
However, it certainly didn’t look like the Indians would come away with a victory if the first quarter was any indication.
St. Vincent missed its first six shots of the game as Valle built a 9-3 lead after the first quarter thanks to six turnovers in the period.
The Indians would build momentum in the second quarter as they pulled within two on multiple occasions, including when Best made a jumper to pull within 15-13.
Valle led 17-13 at half and Kirn liked where his team was mentally. despite the deficit and slow start
“We missed a few lay-ups that if we made we would have the lead at half,” Kirn said. “If we could cut down on the turnovers we could stay with them. “
That’s exactly what happened as St. Vincent had 13 turnovers in the first half and just seven after halftime.
That allowed them to take advantage of their possessions when Schwartz converted a lay-up and an offensive rebound into points and Cates made a lay-up after a nice cut to the basket.
St. Vincent took their first lead of the game after Barber splashed home a jumper at 21-20 with 3:30 left in the third quarter. Cates would give the Indians a 25-23 lead after she hit a longer jumper at the third quarter buzzer.
Kirn was excited for the outcome, but also for the close game.
“I think games like this build character,” Kirn said. “Nobody gets anything out of a 30 point blowout. Games like this make the girls think when they are out there and hopefully that helps as we go.”
