United holds off Lisbon despite problems at line

By Chuck Housteau | February 3, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

The victory keeps the Eagles in first in Tier One of the Inter Tri-County League.

HANOVERTON — United High girls basketball coach Roger Zeigler guaranteed his team would be shooting free throws today at practice after making just 19-of-42 attempts Monday night in a 43-40 win over Lisbon.

The Eagles (15-1, 9-1) stayed atop the Inter Tri-County Tier One league standings and avenged its only loss of the season.

“We stress foul shots every day at practice,” said Zeigler. “We make 19 of 42 shots. We’re lucky to win.

“We want to attack and get to the foul line and we stress that. I don’t know what happened. We were lucky to win and maybe we shouldn’t win.”

The Eagles could have easily put the game away by taking advantage of the free shots after building a 38-29 lead with 4:20 left in the game.

“I think we played maybe not to win but rather not to lose at the end,” Zeigler. “We started to back off and played not to lose.

“Hopefully we learned from this game.”

The Eagles, who are seeded No. 1 in the Division III district tournament at Mineral Ridge, got 13 points from senior Maggie Sell and 10 points from Chelsea Laughlin.

Sell knocked down six free throws late in the game as United held off a late Lisbon charge in the final minutes.

“We started to execute better when we got down there with two or three minutes left,” said Lisbon coach Jamie Entrikin. “My kids never quit. They are going to play hard to the end and they did tonight.”

After trailing by nine points, Lisbon (10-5, 6-5) was nearly able to take advantage of missed free throws by the Eagles to cut the lead down to one point at 41-40 with 10 seconds left on a 3-point shot by Mindy Jackson.

Jackson led the Blue Devils with 14 points while Megan Reynolds added 11 points.

Free throws by Sell in the final seconds sealed the victory for United.

The contest wasn’t pretty between the two rivals as the teams shot 67 free throws and committed 50 turnovers.

“With the way [United] plays and the way we play it’s going to be ugly,” said Entrikin. “Both teams play hard. Both teams play physical and get after each other.

“I think you saw two good teams getting after each other tonight.”

Zeigler said the early loss to Lisbon was a huge motivating factor for his team.

“The girls wanted to come out and win this game,” Zeigler said. “We were hoping that we could do it. This league is tough top to bottom.

“We did what we had to do to win. It wasn’t pretty at the end but I guarantee you we will be shooting foul shots at practice tomorrow.”