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January 12, 2010

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: Walker's shot comes at the right time

Junior's buzzer-beater gives New Wash 47-45 win over Providence

By GREG MENGELT

NEW WASHINGTON — Katelyn Walker waited exactly 32 minutes to score her first points of the game.

Fortunately for New Washington, her points came at the right time.

With 9.7 seconds remaining, Kriston Sarver took an inbound pass from Casey Johnson and raced to the other end of the floor, where she found an open Walker. With one second left, Walker’s 8-footer bounced on the rim three times and fell in to give the Mustangs a 47-45 win over Providence at James Matthews Gymnasium on Tuesday.

“I guess I saved it all for that shot,” Walker said of her first bucket of the contest.

Walker got the assist from Sarver, and also from the Mustang bench.

“I knew it was close,” Walker said of getting the shot off before the buzzer. “But I heard my teammates counting down.”

“When the shot went up, I didn’t know what to expect,” New Wash coach Terry White admitted. “I was just hoping it would fall.”

Walker, who has been dealing with an injured shoulder, was 0-for-5 before the winning shot. The junior refused to call her shot the “game-winner.”

“I wouldn’t call it the game-winning shot,” she said. “We had to have all the other shots before that.”

Before the final play, both teams had a chance to take the final shot.

After Providence’s Mary Graf tied the score at 45 apiece on a layup with 19 seconds left, New Washington threw away the inbounds pass.

After a timeout, the Pioneers were called for a traveling violation with 9.7 seconds left, leading to Walker’s heroics.

“We just have to find a way to win the close games,” Providence coach Brad Burden said. “We can’t continue to make mental mistakes down the stretch. That’s been the story all year.”

With Walker struggling and center Chloe Franklin on the bench much of the night in foul trouble, it was Sarver who kept the Mustangs in the game.

With her team down 31-29 at the end of three quarters, the freshman scored nine fourth-quarter points and finished with a team-high 15. She also had three steals and three rebounds in the final period. At just 5-foot-3, Sarver pulled down six boards and finished with four steals.

“We’ve seen some of those things from her in practice, so we know she’s capable of that. We just hadn’t seen it in a game,” White said.

Johnson added 12 points for the Mustangs, who improved to 8-5. She also led the Mustangs with seven rebounds.

Megan Eve, who hit all four of the Pioneers’ 3-pointers, led Providence with 19 points. Eve also shared team-high honors with six rebounds, along with sophomore Alex Stiner. In her first start of the season, Stiner had five offensive rebounds. Four of those came in the first quarter.

The Pioneers fell to 4-10 with the loss.

“We thought this was as evenly matched as any game we would play all year,” Burden said. “In order to get to our goals, we figured we’d have to win at least half of the toss-up games, and we’ve lost them all.”

Providence will travel across town to Clarksville on Thursday for a varsity-only game at 6 p.m.

New Wash will go to Switzerland County on Saturday to face the 9-5 Pacers, who have won five of their last seven games.



PROVIDENCE 12  8 11 14—45

NEW WASHINGTON 11 12  6 18—47

Providence (4-10) — Ash 6, Eve 19, Graf 4, Flanagan 8, Swartz 5, Stiner 3.

New Washington (8-5) — Doherty 6, Mudd 5, Sarver 15, Johnson 12, Walker 2, Franklin 7.

3-point field goals — Providence 4 (Eve 4); New Washington 1 (Sarver).

Rebounds — Providence 27 (Eve, Stiner 6); New Washington 30 (Johnson 7).

Turnovers — Providence 24, New Washington 21.

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