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Tigers survive Rams’ overtime scare
By ERIC FORTUNE
NEW MIDDLETOWN
The third time was nearly the charm for the Mineral Ridge High girls basketball team in Saturday’s Division III tournament game at Springfield High.
On the surface, the Rams had little hope after 37- and 36-point losses to the Tigers in the regular season.
Inspired underdogs, the Rams took the Tigers to overtime before falling, 48-45.
With 18 seconds to play in regulation, the Rams led, 41-39, when Peyton Allen was sent to the bench after commmitting her fourth foul.
Seconds later, Springfield’s Callie Ford, the girl Allen defended for much of the game, scored a layup to force the extra session.
Ford scored all seven of the Tigers’ points in the bonus session.
“She did such a good job on Ford those first three quarters,” Mineral coach John Matisi said of Allen. “I don’t know what the breakdown was, but it seemed like Ford got a lot of [her points] after we made the switch because we didn’t want Peyton to foul out.
“That was key; her picking up that foul,” Matisi said. “After that switch, we lost Ford.”
In the tight opening quarter, the Rams (7-16) overcame an early 8-2 deficit to trail 11-9.
“It’s a different ballgame, anytime you play someone three times,” Springfield coach Jim Schuler said. “They gave it everything they had. I give them a lot of credit.
“They came out and took it to us,” Schuler said. “They had a good game plan and did well in executing it for the most part.”
The Tigers (21-2) opened up an 18-9 lead.
“We knew coming in that they get their points off of transition and off of offensive rebounds,” Matisi said. “If we could limit those, we’d hold them down. We did a poor job of that in the first half. We did a much better job in the second half.”
Trailing 27-15 at the half, the Rams persevered, holding the Tigers to no field goals and just five points to slice the lead to three after three quarters.
Alyssa Harkins was instrumental in changing the complexion of the game, scoring 10 of her game-high 25 points in the third quarter.
“She took over the game,” Matisi said. “She made some big shots and put her head down and got to the basket. That was the gameplan to spread them out and see if we could get to the basket.”
During the fourth quarter, Ford picked up her fourth foul at the 2:53 mark.
“It was definitely a stupid foul,” Ford said. “I was down for a while, but my teammates picked it up while I was out.
The Rams led 45-42 when Ford scored the final six points. Back-to-back layups put the Tiegers ahead.
“The one thing we said was not to panic when you get in those situations,” Schuler said. “We were down by three at one point in overtime.
“Callie made a couple of good moves to the basket and put a couple of shots in that really solidified getting back into it,” Schuler said. “When we got the lead, we felt again, we were good to go.”
Springfield advances to the Struthers district for a game on Thursday against Ursuline.