LINCOLN — Amazing what can happen in 10 seconds or so.
For Millard West a chance at a Class A championship evaporated at the hands of Lincoln East’s Alli Roh when she caught a pass from point guard Grace Berry and made a layup with 5.5 seconds left to give the Spartans a 48-46 win over the Wildcats. Philomena Lammers difficult baseline shot from under the rim spun out as time expired.
“She played great,” Millard West coach Marc Kruger said of Berry, who led East to 14 straight wins to end the season and finished with 13 points in the game. “Floating one-handers in the lane, finding people, she made a ton of plays. I felt like we kept answering and answering.
“It was a just a great game on both ends. It’s tough right now.”
You’ve probably read the game stories from last night and you should. They recount a game that was as well played as any in recent memory.
East jumped to a quick 14-6 lead after one quarter, then Millard West grabbed the lead in the second before the Spartans took a 23-21 lead into the locker room. Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the contest. There were four ties and eight lead changes in the second half. The game will speak for itself.
The fourth quarter was so good, you could almost can’t do it justice with words.
Logan Black, quiet through three quarters made a three to start it and give Millard West a 37-32 lead. East roared back. A three from KJ Roh, a free throw from Elyssa Jurgens, and a “floating one-hander” from Berry gave East a 38-37 lead.
Black got a steal and basket for Millard West and Alli Roh answered on the wing for a 40-39 Spartan lead. Later, Black would hit a three — off a Lammers rebound and assist — and a free throw that gave Millard West a 43-40 lead with 3:20 left.
Berry scored again to cut the lead to one, and Jaylin Bosak answered with a 3-point shot for Millard West and a 46-42 lead. On the next possession, Reagan Sankey, who willed East to the final with 14 of her 17 points in double overtime against Millard South, made a left wing three to bring East to 46-45 with 2:20 left.
Alli Roh tied the game at 46 and blocked Black in the lane to set up the winning shot. When it was all over, the teams had combined for five 3-point baskets in the final frame with the weight of a state championship on their shoulders.
“Of all the teams I have had at East, they have bonded together,” Spartan coach Dennis Pritchard said. “That’s all on them. It isn’t something, necessarily, I have pushed. Those kids put it on themselves to do that. It means more when they do that. They truly are a team all the way down to (player) 15.”
So society will call one team the champions and one team the runner up. That’s perfectly fine. In life, we should teach winning and losing. That said, we shouldn’t let it define either team. The real lessons of sport are way beyond one really fun game to watch on a Saturday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
“It’s a crazy game,” Kruger said. “Sometimes it bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t. But, I’m so proud of this team and the way the played, the way they fought, this entire tournament.”
He should be. That’s a lesson we can all learn in Lincoln; or anywhere else on the court for that matter.
An Open Thank You
Sometimes we forget how stressful these games can be the first two weekends in March. But, man, did they produce on Saturday. You couldn’t movie script them much better.
Five of the six went down to the final possession, with only Elkhorn South pulling away from Waverly to avenge a loss from earlier in the season.
And, it should be noted, whether you made the winner, like Alli Roh or Kearney Catholic’s Michelle Messbarger, or whether like Lammers or O’Neill St. Mary’s Riley Sibbel that last bucket rimmed out, all the players and coaches won on Saturday. It was one of the finest days of high school hoops finals in quite some time.
And, we got to watch. So, thank you ladies, for a weekend well played, for memories that were made and lessons that were learned. All by putting a little leather ball through an iron hoop.
