Published Sunday, Feb. 23, 1997
Lakeview 50
Grove City 46
Lakeview girls upend GC in D-10 opener
By Ed Farrell
Herald Sports Writer
The only guarantee during Saturday evening's District 10 Class AA girls' basketball opening-round contest was that a very good team's season would end prematurely and its destiny would not be fulfilled.
Lakeview, converting 7 of 9 fourth-frame free throws, rallied from a 5-point deficit with slightly more than four minutes remaining en route to a 50-46 victory over Grove City at Farrell High School.
Lakeview's Casey Spence rips down a rebound in front of Grove City's Julie Laird (Tim Cimperman/Herald).
By virtue of the victory, Lakeview (21-4) will meet Girard _ a 66-42 winner over Eisenhower on Saturday _ in the D-10 semifinals next week at a site and time to be announced.
The win also earned Lakeview a berth in the state playoffs as four D-10 AA squads will advance to interdistrict play for the first time this season.
``We're goin' to the state playoffs. We're guaranteed three more games. We're goin' to states,'' summarized Lady Sailors' head coach Ted Jones. ``That's a goal we set in the beginning of the year; one you don't know if you'll ever achieve, but we made it.''
Grove City (20-5), conversely, saw its stellar season aborted.
``They just did a very nice job defensively. They're very well coached, they knew what they had to do, they executed very well down the stretch, and they made their foul shots. That was really it in the end,'' summarized veteran Grove City mentor Roger Flynn, who, perhaps, best expressed the sentiments for both he and his counterpart.
``Lakeview's an excellent team. Ted and I talked all week about the fact that it was a shame the two of us had to match up in the first round,'' Flynn said. ``We're very good friends and both of us knew that it was gonna be a bitter pill to take for somebody, and it is. It's tough to see our season end because we worked so hard throughout and we feel we're just as good as a lot of teams still moving on. We just got caught in a real difficult draw in the bracket.''
In the pivotal fourth period, a 43-38 Grove City edge wih 4:02 remaining dissipated into a 48-44 deficit with only 30 seconds left. Brooke Barthen highlighted the spree with a basket and subsequent free throw that knotted the count at 43 at the 2:21 juncture.
A pair of Barthen freebies 27 seconds later sandwiched a Julie Laird free throw and Lakeview led, 45-44, with 1:54 left, a lead the Lady Sailors would not relinquish.
Following a Grove City turnover, Casey Spence scored from the lane to increase Lakeview's lead to 47-44, then Retta Zahniser converted the front end of a 1-and-1 bonus free-throw situation for a 4-point margin with only 30 seconds remaining.
Mandy Clelland drove the left side for the last of her team-leading 14 points, drawing the Lady Eagles within 48-46, before Flynn hailed a timeout with 16 seconds left. Three seconds later however, Grove City _ forced to foul _ sent Shannon McCurdy to the line, and the sophomore drained both ends of a 1-and-1 to provide the final margin.
``I'm playing three sophomores and two juniors and I'm shakin' I'm so excited, because of the way they responded. Those sophomores makin' those foul shots down the stretch and clinching the game, I mean, it's just an outstanding win for us,'' Jones said.
Barthen's seven points staked Lakeview to an 11-8 first-frame lead, but six and five points, respectively, by Julie Laird and Amy Kildoo and a half-dozen Lady Sailors' turnovers resulted in a 21-18 Grove City halftime edge. The teams ended the third-quarter turn deadlocked at 33, as Barthen and Spence evenly divided eight Lakeview points, offsetting Clelland's four.
``It's a horrible situation for Grove City,'' Jones empathized. ``They had an outstanding year. They've got a great team, great coaches. It's sad one of us has to go home, and I feel so bad for them and their girls, who played their hearts out.''
Flynn summarized, ``It doesn't take an edge off the great effort. We're disappointed because we feel we're as capable as anybody in the district of a chance to go clear through districts and into the interdistrict play so, of course, there's a lot of disappointment. But it doesn't ruin what was an outstanding season and an outstanding effort.''
Notes: Lakeview connected on 20 of 52 (38.5) floor shots and 9 of 14 (64.3) free throws, compared with respective totals of 18 of 42 (42.9) and 9 of 17 (52.9) for Grove City. ... Spence's game-high 11 caroms led Lakeview, but the Lady Sailors were outrebounded, 35-31, as the Lady Eagles were paced by Erin Kennedy's eight caroms. ... Grove City was guilty of 17 turnovers, including a handful during the decisive fourth frame, while Lakeview committed 10 turnovers.
Back to TOP // Herald
Sports // Herald
Home page
Updated Feb. 23, 1997
Questions/comments: herald@pgh.net
For info about advertising on our site or Web-page creation:
advertising@sharon-herald.com
Copyright ©1997 The Sharon Herald Co. All rights reserved.
Reproduction
or retransmission in any form is prohibited without our permission.