Battle at Pekin tips toward Van Buren

PACKWOOD ? Both teams swapped turnovers and missed a combined five free throws in the final 17 seconds to allow Van Buren?s one-point lead to stick for a 39-38 win at Pekin Thursday evening.

The 11th-ranked Warriors (15-0) never led by more than three points the entire way, but had enough in the final moments to get past the toughest test of their undefeated season.

?Overall, with the speed and the way they battle, that?s the best team we?ve seen this year,? said Van Buren head coach Matt Zeitler.

Kassie Myers rebounded a missed free throw with four seconds remaining before absorbing an intentional foul with just one tick left to preserve the 39-38 score that went unchanged in the last 30 seconds.

?Kassie is a leader, she?s a captain, and that ball she went after sealed it. She really stepped up for us,? Zeitler said.

Myers finished the game with 10 points and Jessica Saunders scored 12 in support of leading-scorer Makenzie Zeitler?s rough outing that resulted in nine points.

Dominique Tolle hit from the foul line to get Pekin (11-4) to the one-point deficit with 30 seconds left, but no more points could be mustered in a game that made buckets hard to come by from the opening tip.

?Fundamentals really hurt us down the stretch. Not doing the little things really hurt,? said Pekin head coach Davis Eidahl. ?But Van Buren is a really good team, and we stayed with them all the way.?

Zeitler pulled up in the middle of the lane for the Warriors? final field goal with just under two minutes to play to make the score 38-35. Kaitlin Spilman pulled in one of her team-high 15 rebounds and put it back up to pull the Panthers back within a point to set up the final minute. Myers nailed one free throw with 44 second left on the clock to gain a lead that ended up being preserved.

?We had never been in that position before and you had to wonder what we would do when we were put in it. But I thought the girls handled themselves,? said Zeitler. ?We about screwed up, but did what we needed when we needed to.?

Pekin took its biggest lead with a 14-8 advantage late in the first quarter. The backcourt duo of Emily Ellis and Jessi Martin, which gave Van Buren fits all night with defensive pressure, hit two from behind the arc in the final minute of the period to gain the big lead.

Ellis hit her second 3-pointer, as part of her team-high 11 points, to give the Panthers a 20-15 lead mid-way through the second quarter. Pekin would never enjoy a lead of more than four points the rest of the way, however, and managed only five points in the final period.

Spilman added nine points for Pekin and Leslie Stone tallied five.

Hannah Haynes scored eight points came down with 19 rebounds for Van Buren to move her season average up to 12.3 per game as a sophomore. Paige Gaston came up with seven assists.

?We had a few that didn?t play a great game, but a couple others step it up,? Zeitler added. ?We didn?t shoot very well, but again, our defense won the ball game.?

Following the non-conference loss, Pekin will be back in action tonight on the road against Louisa-Muscatine. Van Buren will visit Central Lee.