ATHENS PULLS OUT OVERTIME THRILLER; TOPS NEB, 58-53
By: Tim Birney | AthensWildcats.com | January 11, 2021 | Photo courtesy David Alliger
ATHENS — After a back-and-fourth four quarters of action, Athens scored
the first seven points in overtime to pull out a 58-53 win over
Northeast Bradford here Monday night in NTL girls basketball action.
The Lady Wildcats improve to 2-0 with the win, and coach Brian Miller said Saturday’s game paid dividends Monday night.
“It
was nice to have a game under our belt,” he said. “I needed it as a
coach to see how some of my younger girls — meaning Emma (Bronson) and
Karlee (Bartlow) — would react at the varsity level.
“As the game went on, you see their confidence level grow, and you could see them feel their way into the game.
“We held Lauryn Jones to three points, which is a great accomplishment, and that was mostly Karlee and Emma,” added Miller.
Junior Maisie Neuber picked up the slack for Jones, scoring 30 points and hauling down 11 rebounds.
“Next
time, we have to do a better job on (Maisie) Neuber, she had a great
game,” said Miller. “She was good last year … she has turned into an
elite player.”
Opening the season at Athens was a tough chore, noted Beebe.
“I
feel awesome about how our girls played. They never gave up,” said
Beebe. “Coming into this gym on the first night of the season … with
just five practices and you draw Athens, that’s tough.
“I couldn’t ask for anything else, well a win, I guess,” laughed Beebe, “The girls played great.”
Athens led by as many as five points three times in the first half, but Northeast fought back to take the lead each time.
Conversely,
the Lady Panthers built a six-point lead early in the fourth quarter,
but Athens rallied to take the lead before the game went into overtime.
“We’ve played Northeast three times since the start of last season, and two of the three have gone to overtime,” said Miller.
“It
was a game of momentum. We’d take a five-point lead, and they’d come
back to tie it. They would take a five-point lead, and we came back to
tie it.
“It shows you what type of teams both of us have,” noted
Miller. “We can get our backs against the wall, settle in, and battle
back.”
“It’s a great win,” added Miller. “I told the girls
(Northeast) is the best team by far (in the Small School Division),
maybe the best team in the league, along with Towanda, if you take us
out of the equation, so that’s a good win.”
NEB coach Ben Beebe expressed similar sentiments.
“One
thing I love about playing one of Brian Miller’s team, is that it’s
always good basketball,” said Beebe. “Both teams went on runs, and both
teams answered.
“Both teams played good defense, you can’t really ask for a better game,” he noted.
“Tough
games like this make you better,” Beebe added. “I’ll take a game like
this any day of the week. I can’t wait to play Athens again in a month.”
Miller,
who canned four 3-pointers, paced Athens with 25 points, including a
7-for-7 effort from the free-throw line. four steals, and four assists.
She scored 17 points, including all seven free throws, in the fourth
quarter and overtime.
Macik added 12 points, 10 rebounds, five
blocked shots, and three assists in the win, while Stephens had seven
points, seven rebounds, and three steals, Bartlow added six points and
three steals, and Collins chipped in with five points and three assists.
Alena
Beebe banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to open the scoring
and Neuber added a pair of buckets, sandwiched around scores by Macik,
to give the Lady Panthers a 7-4 lead.
Stephens then scored
back-to-back buckets — the first off a nifty high-low assist from Macik,
and the second on a fast-break assist from Miller — to trigger an 8-0
spurt that put the Lady Wildcats up 12-7.
Neuber scored five
straight points on a long two-point jumper and a 3-pointer to tie the
game at 12-12 with 1:02 remaining in the first quarter.
Macik banked in a runner with 6 seconds remaining to give Athens a 14-12 lead after the first eight minutes.
NEB
scored the first five points of the second quarter, but Miller and
Collins knocked down consecutive three-pointers, and Macik added a
bucket on a textbook screen-and-roll assist from Miller in an 8-0 spurt
that put the Lady Wildcats up 22-17 with 1:20 remaining in the first
half.
Neuber scored with 2 seconds remaining in the first half to cut the NEB halftime deficit to 24-21.
Beebe,
Kayleigh Thoman, and Neuber scored consecutive buckets to open the
second half, giving NEB a 27-24 lead with 6:21 left in the third
quarter.
After the teams traded buckets, Collins canned a 15-foot
jumper, and Miller drained a 3-pointer to give Athens a 31-29 lead with
1:21 remaining in the third quarter.
Neuber made four straight
free throws to give NEB a 33-31 lead with 33 seconds left in the third
quarter, but a free throw by Bartlow cut the Athens deficit to one point
heading into the final eight minutes.
Jones drained a long
3-pointer on NEB’s first possession of the fourth quarter, and moments
later Neuber gave the Lady Panthers their biggest lead of the game — at
38-32 — after turning a steal into a fast-break lay-up with 7:25 left in
regulation.
Athens answered with six straight points — the last
five coming on a pair of free throws and an old-fashioned three-point
play by Miller — to tie the game at 38-38 with 4:44 left in the fourth
quarter.
The teams traded points until Beebe drained a 3-pointer with 3:01 remaining in the fourth quarter to give NEB a 45-42 lead.
After a free throw by Macik, Miller banked in a 3-pointer with 2:12 left in regulation to give the Lady Wildcats a 46-45 lead.
Neuber, off a feed from Thoman, gave NEB its final lead of the game, at 47-46, with 59 seconds left in regulation.
Athens’
ensuing possession nearly ended in disaster when a low-post entry pass
intended for Macik went off her hands. As she fell out-of-bounds, she
deftly batted the ball back in-bounds, where Miller fielded it cleanly
near the top of the key, and buried a 3-pointer to give Athens a 49-47
lead with 38 seconds remaining.
After Neuber tied the game with a
shot from the low block, Miller’s potential game-winner was blocked
with 5 seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime.
Neither
team was able to score on its first two possessions in overtime, but
Bartlow put Athens ahead with a free throw, following her steal in the
paint under the NEB bucket and subsequent coast-to-coast drive.
Following another NEB turnover, Miller drove baseline for a lay-up with 1:47 remaining in overtime to make it 52-49.
After a defensive stop, Athens made six of eight free throws, including three by sophomore Emma Bronson, to seal the win.
Miller was pleased with the contributions of every player that stepped on the floor.
“After
Kayleigh banked in the three, Karlee had a nice drive for a basket, and
Emma made three out of four free throws in overtime,” he said. “We had
girls get some big rebounds and loose balls down the stretch.
“It’s
a team game,” Miller added. “We’re more than just two girls, we have to
play five girls on the floor — they all have to rebounds, they all have
to communicate and play defense, and we did that tonight.”
Neuber
added 11 rebounds to go along with her 30 points for the Lady Panthers,
while Thoman and Beebe, who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, scored
eight points apiece, and Kate O’Connor added four points.
Athens returns to action Wednesday at Bloomsburg.
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