Lady Eagles Clip Lady Saints In OT

Cole Frick of Huntsville High School drives towards the lane Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, during the game against Shiloh Christian School at Champions Gym in Springdale.
Cole Frick of Huntsville High School drives towards the lane Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, during the game against Shiloh Christian School at Champions Gym in Springdale.

— Huntsville girls basketball coach Charles Berry wanted to go inside to his post players for the game-winning shot at the end of regulation.

He instead had to settle for watching his Lady Eagles stand at the free-throw line and make their shots in overtime to leave Champions Gymnasium in a good mood Tuesday.

Miranda Dubberly and Sydney Striplin scored all six of Huntsville’s points in overtime, including four on free throws, to help their team escape with a 37-33 win over Shiloh Christian.

Of course, it helped that the Lady Saints committed several costly turnovers in the extra period and had trouble going inside to 6-foot-3 center Richelle Cooper.

“They turned it over a couple of times. We didn’t really do much more,” Berry said. “We tried to play their big girl. We tried to front her, and we tried to play behind her.

“If we fronted her, she got all the rebounds. And if we played behind her, she scored.”

Huntsville (20-4, 10-1 5A-West Conference) had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation after Cooper made 1 of 2 free-throw attempts to tie the score at 31-31 with 1 minute, 33 seconds remaining.

Berry called a timeout with 13.7 seconds left to set up the final play, but the Lady Eagles couldn’t get the ball inside at the end of regulation, as he hoped. Vanessa Burgess was forced to attempt a long jumper that bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

“We were trying to go to the post. That was our plans,” Berry said. “But we didn’t really get the job done and we had to take really an ill-advised shot.”

Dubberly scored a team-high 14 points, and Striplin hit 3 of 4 free-throw attempts in overtime to finish with 12 points and give Huntsville enough breathing room to earn the win.

Both teams struggled to get into an offensive rhythm early on as Shiloh (5-8, 0-11) led only 6-2 after the first quarter. But the Lady Saints got into a groove after going inside to Cooper, who scored a game-high 15 points.

Huntsville made a conscious effort to have at least two defenders on Cooper in overtime, and she was held scoreless down the stretch as a result. Shiloh managed only a pair of free throws from Lauren Roth with 52 seconds remaining in overtime.

“I can’t say we beat ourselves because Huntsville has a lot to do with that,” Shiloh coach Mat Stewart said. “But we turned the ball over at the worst times, it seems like.

“Every time we tried to make a run or take the lead or have a chance, we do something silly. We have not been able to correct that all year.”

HUNTSVILLE 37, SHILOH CHRISTIAN 33

Huntsville 2 13 7 9 6 — 37

Shiloh 6 7 8 10 2 — 33

Huntsville (20-4, 10-1): Dubberly 14, Striplin 12, Robinson 7, Gragg 4.

Shiloh Christian (5-18, 0-11): Cooper 15, Sears 6, Roth 5, Harris 4, Jones 3.

Boys

Huntsville 72, Shiloh Christian 62

Cole Frick scored 23 points and Ricky Scott had 18 as Huntsville (16-6, 6-5) pulled away in the second half despite an impressive one-man show from Shiloh guard Darian Harris.

Harris accounted for 40 points of the Saints’ 62 points, and Andrew Daniels was the only other play for Shiloh (9-14, 4-7) to score in double figures with 11.

Daniels sank a 3-pointer that cut Huntsville’s lead to 62-55 with less than four minutes remaining, but the Eagles outscored the Saints 10-2 after that to seal the win.

Blake Evans added 17 points for Huntsville.

HUNTSVILLE 72, SHILOH CHRISTIAN 62

Huntsville 16 16 24 16 — 72

Shiloh 9 20 16 17 — 62

Huntsville (16-6, 6-5): Frick 23, Scott 18, Evans 17, McCollough 8, Green 4 Clark 2.

Shiloh Christian (9-14, 4-7): Harris 40, Daniels 11, Pauling 4, Matthews 4, Anderson 2, Crawford 1.

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