‘A’ girls win overtime thriller

By Rob Vogt

It was easily the most exciting basketball game of the season.
The Willow Creek Composite High School junior high “A” girls’ basketball team staged a last-minute comeback to tie their game against Matthew Halton High School of Pincher Creek, then won it in overtime.
The Cobras hosted Hawks on Friday, Jan. 31, winning by a score of 19-16.
Pincher Creek led 6-4 after the first quarter, 9-8 at halftime, and 15-11 after three quarters.
Then, the fourth quarter got very interesting.
After closing to 15-13, the Cobras had eight straight possessions where they could have tied the game, but came up empty each time.
Hope looked lost when the Hawks grabbed the rebound from a Claresholm shot, and looked to run out the clock.
Then Cobra Minnie Toone saved the day.
She tied up the Hawk ball handler. The possession arrow favoured Claresholm, so they got the ball and another chance to tie.
They did not let it pass this time.
Berlyn Smith got the ball underneath the basket. She calmly banked in the tying shot to make the score 15-15 – with just 26.2 seconds left – sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Pincher Creek could not respond, so the teams were headed to five minutes of overtime.
The Hawks struck first, making a foul shot, to take a 16-15 lead.
Claresholm’s Ruth Leishman took over from there.
She scored with 2:12 remaining to give the Cobras a 17-16 lead, then put the game away with another set shot with 1:06 remaining.
The Hawks could not reply.
Claresholm had come all the way back for the 19-16 win.
Scoring for the Cobras were Ruth Leishman with 10 points; Berlyn Smith with six points; and Maya Sabey with three points.
The game was part of a day of basketball that also saw F.P. Walshe School of Fort Macleod pay a visit.
After Fort Macleod beat Claresholm in the opening game, Fort Macleod played again right away and defeated Pincher Creek.
The day wrapped up with Claresholm defeating Pincher Creek in overtime.