Late run saves Mathews
VIENNA — The Mathews girl’s basketball team used a 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter to come from behind to beat Lowellville 39-30 in the first round of the division IV Mineral Ridge districts.
“We didn’t want our season to end so we knew that we had to step it up and work hard on defense so we could get good shots on offense,” said senior Katarina Schubert.
With the Mustangs down two with under three minutes left in their season, junior Emily Strama put back a missed free throw for a layup and foul. She sunk the free throw to complete the three-point play and give Mathew the first lead of the game with 2:32 remaining.
“That was huge — it was the game changer,” said senior Paige Sponsler. “Emily’s offensive boards were unbelievable tonight; she was huge for us in this game.” Sponsler sealed the deal with a deep three from the wing to put Mathews up 35-28 with just over a minute to play. She was shut down for most of the first half came alive in the second, knocking down three second half treys to finish the night with a game-high 13 points.
“When Page starts hitting some shots it tends to make everyone’s life a lot easier on the offensive end,” Bornemiss said. The Rockets were in control for most of the game but were held without a field goal for the entire fourth quarter which really allowed for Mathews to hang around.
“I thought we got good looks but we just couldn’t finish,” said Lowellville coach Lisa Modelski. “A lot goes back to these girls learning how to win, we haven’t had a lot of winning season in the past, I told them that we are there its just now learning how to put games away. With a couple minutes to go in the fourth quarter we just couldn’t figure out a way to win and control the ball.”
Lowellville entered the second half with a thin 15-13 lead but back to back triples by Sponsler to start the half gave Mathews their first lead since the opening quarter. “Its survive or move on,” said Mathews coach Joe Bornemiss. “I have three seniors that have been with me for all four years and I didn’t want to see them play like that if that was their last game. We were just very lackadaisical with not a lot of energy and I really focused on that at half time.”
Scoring came far and few in this one with Lowellville sitting back in a zone for most of the night and not allowing the Mustangs to get out and run. “I thought Lowellville had an excellent game plan for us tonight,” said Bornemiss. “We’re an up-tempo team. We like to get as many rebounds as we can and push the ball and I thought Lowellville had a tremendous game plan against us to slow that pace down and they did. For us to score only 13 points in the first half that really took us out of what we really like to do.”
Mathews will travel to Lordstown on Saturday Feb. 25 to take on the Lady Red Devils in the second round of Districts with the two teams splitting the regular season series.
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