Hinckley-Big Rock 53, Dakota 44: The Dakota girls basketball team just couldn’t quite get over the hump in the fourth quarter Monday.
It entered the quarter trailing Hinckley-Big Rock by one in the Elgin Supersectional but could never take the lead back, losing 53-44.
The Indians trailed by two with 2:02 to play but missed the front ends of two one-and-ones and their final three shots of the game.
“We missed a couple of one-and-ones late, and that could have made a difference,” Indians coach Kevin Cline said. “All four of those free throws could have brought us even at 48. But you know, you miss a few shots early as opposed to late, it all evens out.”
The Indians offense got off to a strong start as senior forward Alexys Cleaver and senior guard Erika Lawson helped the Indians end the first quarter on a 9-0 run by hitting three consecutive 3-pointers, giving Dakota an 18-14 lead at the end of the first.
“They weren’t really up in our faces,” said Cleaver who had three 3-pointers and 16 points in the first half. “We had open shots, and they were falling tonight.”
“The outside shots were just open,” Lawson said. “When they’re open like that, you have to be able to knock them down. That’s what really kept us in the game in the first half, the outside shot.”
The Royals were able to stay right with Dakota on the strength of their post play. Hinckley-Big Rock’s size advantage in the paint was especially painful for the Indians on the glass. H-BR outrebounded Dakota 30-15.
The Royals were able to get two, sometimes three offensive rebounds on possessions as post Melissa Hermann was sometimes able to simply reach above every Indian defender to snag one.
“We just didn’t do a good enough job of boxing out,” Cline said. “We were working hard at it, but when you’ve got that many big bodies coming at you it’s pretty hard to contain all of them. Those second chance opportunities ended up killing us.”
Dakota was outrebounded 13-7 in the first half but still looked like it would enter intermission with a slim one-point lead.
But the Royals took the ball the length of the court with just seconds remaining and Hermann made a basket and was fouled just as the buzzer sounded. She converted the 3-point play to put H-BR up 30-28.
Official Chris Long, the referee who called Prophetstown’s final shot good in Dakota’s sectional semifinal loss last season, was on the court on Monday, but H-BR’s shot clearly beat the buzzer and there was no controversy whatsoever involving the officiating.
“It was just an odd twist of fate,” Cline said. “It didn’t have any effect or impact on the game.”
The shots that had been falling so easily for the Indians in the first half were rare in the second. The Royals used a zone defense to try to negate Dakota’s hot perimeter shooting.
“I didn’t expect to sit in the 2-3 (zone) as much as we did, but it was working,” H-BR coach Greg Burks said. “We needed to find an answer to defend their two shooters because they just absolutely murdered us in the first half.”
Lawson kept the Indians in the game in the third quarter, scoring all nine of Dakota’s points in the period as the Indians closed the gap to one.
But that would be as close as they would come. H-BR’s Tess Godhardt scored to open the quarter and Lawson (team-high 19 points) answered back with a pair of free throws.
The Royals scored the next six points to build a seven-point lead, but guard Brianne Boals drained a 3-pointer and hit a tough shot in traffic to bring Dakota within two with 2:02 to play.
The Indians wouldn’t score from there, missing three shots and two free throws, and H-BR scored the final seven points of the game.
Boals’ two field goals were the only ones the Indians made in the final quarter, as Lawson’s two free throws were the only points they scored in the first 5:38 of the fourth.
- Jeremy Anders, GateHouse News Service
