Westminster advances to Class 1A sectional final
The Willows Academy gym was rocking Monday night in the Class 1A girls basketball sectional semifinal game between the Westminster Christian Warriors and the Willows Academy Eagles.
The Warriors (22-8) defeated the Eagles in overtime 51-44 and advanced to the sectional final game Thursday to play Seton Academy, a 65-47 winner over Ida Crown in Monday’s second semifinal.
The road to their first sectional title game looked easy for the Warriors in the third quarter as they had a 9-point lead in the final minutes; but the Eagles (22-3) fought back with a 10-0 run starting late in the third and evened the score at 33 with 5:16 left in the game on a basket by senior Monica Hinderer. Hinderer was fouled on the play and made her free-throw to give the Eagles their first lead since early in the first quarter.
“We were a little rattled,” said Warriors head coach Ken Flickinger. “We turned the ball over way too much, so every time we seemed to get a little bit of a lead, we gave it right back to them.”
The fourth quarter went back-and-forth from that point on and with the Warriors down by 2 with 7.6 seconds to go, senior center Porsche Griggs put in a layup to tie the game at 41 and force the extra frame. Griggs and the rest of the upperclassmen played a huge role in keeping their team in the game despite giving up their 9-point lead.
“Our leaders stepped up,” said Griggs. “We got into each other’s faces. We said ‘I’m not done playing yet, you’re not done playing yet.’ We have to win today to keep playing. Let’s get it done so we can go to practice tomorrow.”
Griggs led the Warriors with 17 points on the night, while senior guard Whitney Vanden Bos (11 points) and sophomore guard McKaila Hays (10 points) also accounted for the clutch shots in the fourth quarter and overtime to give the Warriors the victory.
The loyal Warrior fans filled their student section to support their team on the road, and Griggs was glad to give them a show.
“We definitely had to have some energy for the crowd,” said Griggs. “It’s a long way from home, so we had to give them something to watch. We had to come out here and play our best, and I had a lot of help from my team. It was a great win.”