Dolsak’s buzzer-beater lifts McDonald in OT

Lowellville came close to upsetting the first-place Blue Devils.

By JIM FLICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

McDONALD — The McDonald High girls basketball team stormed back from a cold first half, sending Thursday’s game into overtime before coming out with a 54-52 win over Inter Tri-County League Tier Two rival Lowellville.

Emily Dolsak sealed the win for McDonald when she snagged a rebound and scored the winning points as the clock expired. The McDonald senior was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points.

“We wanted her [Dolsak] to get the ball,” McDonald coach Rob Hilbun said. “On that last play, she had the perfect position.”

Early in the game, the Blue Devils rarely had the better position.

McDonald led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, but Lowellville outscored the Blue Devils 19-7 in the second quarter to take a 28-17 lead.

A key to Lowellville’s first-half surge was 6-foot-1 Alison Grapevine, who dominated the inside play for much of the game and led Lowellville with 15 points.

In the closing seconds of the first half, sophomore Jamie Hynes sparked the Rockets when twice she stole the ball and scored breakaway layups.

A problem in the first half, Hilbun admitted later, was that only two Blue Devils put the ball in the hoop in the first half. Dolsak scored nine points before halftime, and Lindsay Repp accounted for the team’s other eight points.

But Cassie Garland, Ari-Anna Williams and Joey Courtney joined the McDonald scoring parade in the second half. In fact, McDonald outscored Lowellville 19-9 in third quarter to cut the Rockets’ lead to a single point, 37-36.

Garland seemed to put the victory on ice for McDonald when she scored a basket with 23 seconds left in the game and a free throw to put the Blue Devils up 46-43.

After a timeout, Lowellville inbounded the ball and missed a 3-pointer. But the Rockets grabbed the rebound and Hynes again haunted the Blue Devils as the clock ran down, this time making a 3-pointer as the clock expired.

Both teams played strong defense in overtime. With less than a minute remaining, Dolsak tied the score at 52 with a free throw. Lowellville turned the ball over, setting up Dolsak’s winning shot.

McDonald outscored Lowellville 8-6 in overtime, with Dolsak scoring four points, and Williams and Repp each scoring a basket.

“We never gave up,” Hilbun said.

The coach added that his team played Thursday without two regulars, who were ill and unable to play.

“We had so many opportunities to put the game away and we didn’t,” Lowellville coach Tony Matisi said.

Matisi noted that Grapevine played well, but his team needed to shoot better from long range.

“We go as our outside shooting goes,” he said.

Overall, the team made 22-of-45 shots, but Lowellville scored only two 3-pointers, both by Hynes.