Lakers work OT for win

VINCE PELUSO
Star Beacon

January 09, 2009 03:04 am

— MECCA — Maplewood’s girls basketball team seemed to be doing everything right for the first 30 minutes of its contest against Pymatuning Valley on Thursday night.
Unfortunately, for the Rockets, the game was 36 minutes long and PV (10-0) was the better team for the final six minutes in a 59-56 overtime victory.
Maplewood (8-4) led, 52-50, with 16 seconds remaining in the final period after Ellie Engstrom made one of two free throws. PV came down with the rebound on the missed second shot and got the ball to Rose Lane. The senior made the game-tying layup to send the game to overtime.
“It felt good,” Rose said of keeping the Lakers’ undefeated season alive. “I didn’t really know what the time was at. I just got the ball and didn’t think about it and luckily it fell.”
The Lakers controlled the overtime session.
“We feel lucky because Maplewood brought it to us a little bit,” PV coach Jeff Compan said. “I thought they were the more aggressive team and they rebounded the crap out of the ball. But I’m very proud of the way we hung in.”
The Rockets dominated the glass, outrebounding PV, 43-27. After the game, Maplewood coach Mark Yoder was disappointed with the loss, but not necessarily with the performance.
“I thought we played pretty well for the most part of the game,” he said. “We played some pretty good basketball and I thought we outhustled them, outrebounded them and played like we were supposed to. But we didn’t do anything we were supposed to in the overtime and had some mental breakdowns.”
The Lakers were in danger of losing their perfect season as they trailed by five points with just over a minute to play in the fourth, but they were able to make the necessary shots down the stretch.
“I told the girls, we shot the ball poorly from the foul line and got drilled on the boards, but I’m proud of the way we were able to hang in there,” Compan said. “But we need to get better rebounding the ball and making foul shots. In big games like this, those things are huge. We were lucky to get out of here with a win.”
Lane was the hero at the end of regulation, but she was also big throughout, scoring a game-high 24 points. Lane said she tried not to let the pressure of the game get to her.
“I just tried my best and tried not to think of the pressure of the game,” she said. “It feels good to get a win here because throughout high school we’ve always had trouble with Maplewood and so for my senior year I’d like to finish by beating them twice.”
Compan had nothing but compliments for the way Lane played.
“Rose is a senior captain and a leader,” he said. “I was happy to see she didn’t panic. We didn’t have a play at the end because we didn’t have a timeout and she just took it and drove down the lane and made the shot. It was nice to see a senior step up and hit a big shot like that.”
Michelle Sloan led Maplewood in scoring with 18 points. Brittany Rumple had a double-double for the Rockets with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Peluso is a correspondent for the Tribune Chronicle (Warren).

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