Hersey's late pressure takes one away from Jacobs
In a back-and-forth battle that featured streaks by both teams, it looked as though Keri Bultman might just carry Jacobs to the third-place trophy at Wheaton North on Saturday night.
The Golden Eagles senior had a pair of baskets and a free throw late as Jacobs (12-5) rallied for a 62-60 lead on Hersey with 1:03 left to play. But the Huskies, who had let a 53-42 lead after three quarters of play slip away, turned up the pressure the final 63 seconds of play and Jacobs found itself settling for fourth place after a disheartening 65-62 loss.
"The girls did a nice job for the most part but when it mattered we turned the ball over," Jacobs coach Ed Haugens said after his team suffered four giveaways in the final minute. "It's real disappointing that we didn't handle the press. That loss was unacceptable."
The Huskies (10-4) trailed 22-17 after one quarter but then limited the Golden Eagles to just 8 points in the second quarter. The improved defense, coupled with the hot shooting of Megan Rogowski and Kelly Rogowski, enabled Hersey to recover from a slow start and appear to take control of the game in the second half.
Megan Rogowski had a trio of 3-pointers and a variety of short jumpers and spinning lay-ups while tallying 17 of her game-high 25 points in the first half. Kelly, meanwhile, connected on a pair of 3s in the third quarter while scoring 8 of her 15 points in a third quarter which saw Hersey outscore Jacobs 20-12 to take an 11-point lead into the final 8 minutes of play.
"It was a weird game but I had confidence," said Kelly Rogowski, who averaged 6.5 assists a game at the Bill Neibch Falcon Classic this week. "We controlled ourselves better down the stretch and we hit clutch free throws."
But it didn't come easily for Hersey. The Golden Eagles made 17 of 19 free throws on the night and Bultman scored 14 of her 21 points in the second half. Maria Tamburrino added 15 points and 3 steals, while forward Katy Cook had 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Huskies missed 10 free throws in the game, but Julia Fredian sank both of her shots with 34.7 seconds to go to draw Hersey even at 62-all, then Megan Rogowski connected on 3 of 4 in the waning seconds to convert Jacobs' turnovers into the winning points.
"You knew they'd be hard to trap because they're pretty tall, but we did get a few turnovers off it," Hersey coach Mary Fendley said of her team's late press.
Kelly Rogowski said the victory allowed the Huskies to achieve a few of their goals before the end of the calendar year. "We outplayed our seed, which was one of our goals," she said of the tourney's fourth seed. "Plus we wanted to end on a winning note and to reach double-digit wins before 2009."