Fenton stuns Willowbrook with comeback

Fenton's Michelle McEvoy gunned in what appeared to be a shot that would have been a candidate for ESPN's Top 10 Plays of the Day during the Bison's Seasons End Tournament contest against Willowbrook on Wednesday night.

McEvoy threw up a 65-footer that banked in at the halftime buzzer, but the shot was waved off by the officials, who ruled that she didn't get the shot off in time.

However, McEvoy got another opportunity to deliver in the clutch. Her two free throws gave the Bison a 37-34 cushion with 22.8 seconds left. Those free throws capped a wild fourth quarter in which the Bison - who trailed 28-9 going into the quarter - stormed back and defeated the Warriors 37-36.

McEvoy, who hit 6 of 7 from the line during the fourth quarter, said afterward she remembers the Bison battling back from deficits before but not from this big of a margin. The shot she hit at halftime that didn't count - "I think I shot it before time ran out," she said - was the only uplifting moment of the first three quarters for Fenton, which shot just 2 of 30 from the floor during that span.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and I've never been a part of anything like this," said Fenton coach Tim Anderson. "These kids do not give up. We told them, 'You think you feel bad right now, think how bad you'll feel if you give up.'

"We told them that at halftime, we told them that here (in the fourth quarter). I don't know if they bought into it, but they sure didn't give up, did they?"

McKall Pugliese was symptomatic of the Bison's shooting woes through the first 24 minutes. Pugliese, who hit 20 3-pointers in her past three games, had just 1 point going into the fourth quarter. She missed her first 15 attempts from the field.

"She was a little frustrated," Anderson said.

The Warriors (7-17) contributed to Pugliese's frustration with solid man-to-man defense as Jess Nolen and Colleen Lydon shadowed the area's leading 3-point shooter most of the night.

But Pugliese found her shot when the Bison (11-15) needed it most. Her first 3 of the game came with 5:10 to go and capped a 9-0 run that enabled the Bison to pull within 12 points of Willowbrook after they trailed at one point 33-13. Pugliese sank another 3-pointer a minute later that cut the Warriors' lead to 34-25. But she ended up fouling out with 3:28 left.

"Give the girls all the credit in the world," Anderson said. "We're a different team without her in there. Wow. I'm just so proud of them. I don't know how to digest it."

McEvoy went 4 of 4 at the line to make it 34-29, then Missy Santagata nailed a 3, and the Bison trailed the Warriors by only 2 points.

"We ran 'Go Loyola,' " said Anderson, describing the play that led to Santagata's 3. "That's what we're running for McKall all night, trying to get her a 3 coming off the second screen. And it worked."

McEvoy's layup following a Warrior turnover tied it, 34-34, and Lindsay Speiden gave the Bison their first lead of the night, 35-34, by sinking the second of two free throws with 29.1 seconds left.

Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said Warriors got out of sync in the second half, which led to their fourth-quarter collapse.

"I really think a lot of it (in the fourth quarter) was we're not a fast-paced team," he said. "And we kind of got intoxicated with ourselves because we were able to run in the first half. At halftime I said, 'We're not a running team. Get the ball across halfcourt and run your offense.' And three, four timeouts later, I was still saying, 'We're not a running team. Get the ball across halfcourt and run your offense.'

"I think we got a little giddy because typically we don't score a lot of points, and we did pretty well the first half."