Girls' Hoopsters Down Madeira in nail-biter

The girls' basketball team had to go to overtime when they won at Madeira on January 11th. So compared to that, last night's 29-26 win was a yawner.  As if.

We trailed by one with about a minute and a half to go.  Kathryn Policastro grabbed the rebound off a missed free throw and put it home to take back the lead by one.

Michelle Jolson and Clara Rodrigue then trapped the Madeira ball handler at mid-court, forcing a turnover which turned into a Clara layup and a three point lead.

Madeira came down and scored, cutting the lead to one.  We couldn't score the next time down the court so Madeira had the ball and called a timeout with 18.4 seconds to go, trailing by the thinnest of margins.

We had a foul to give (as you can see), so after they inbounded the ball and started to drive, Michelle reached in and took the foul to burn a little clock.

After another timeout, Madeira was able to get a shot off from the corner but it caromed off and Kathryn grabbed the rebound and passed to Michelle, whom Madeira then fouled.

Michelle calmly sank both ends of the 1-and-1 with 1.6 seconds to go and then Mary Tess Irvine stole the inbounds pass to seal the victory.  Phew.

Michelle led all scorers with 14.  Mary Tess added 5, Clara four, and Kathryn and Shannon O'Hara three each.

The win leaves both teams with three league losses, but Madeira must face league-leading Indian Hill next Wednesday.  Indian Hill won their first game, at Indian Hill, by 18.  Our girls are now 13-5 (10-3).

Next up: next Wednesday at Taylor, the penultimate game of the regular season - JV at 6, Varsity at 7:30.

Photo gallery here.