W-MU edges Highland in Class 1A opener

WINFIELD - Bradie Buffington is a freshman on the free-throw line with 14 seconds left and her team trailing by one point in a Class 1A first-round postseason girls basketball game.

Not only does she make the first to tie, her second swish is the difference in Winfield-Mt. Union's 42-41 victory over Highland.

'It was very intense,” Buffington said. 'My hands were shaking nonstop, but all the work we do on free throws paid off. I don't know how I did it, it was crazy. I tried to leave my mind blank and tell myself the score was 0-0.”

Highland's Alyssa Brase had made two free throws with 1 minute, 42 seconds left, then Haley Sweeting, who had four fouls, stole the ball and was fouled on her layup, but converted two free throws for the one-point Huskies lead that led to Buffington's shots.

'Haley was always there for us even though she fouled out,” Highland coach Jody Fink said. 'I thought it was a great team effort by everybody on our part. Whether they scored or played defense, everybody was just outstanding. That's all I can ask for as a coach. We had the ball at the end with an opportunity, they collapsed on us and the ball got knocked around and we ran out of time.”

Despite the joy of giving her team a lead, Buffington knew there was a large task yet to be accomplished.

'It was exhilarating to make those, but I know we still had 14 seconds on the clock and we had to play some good defense,” Buffington said. 'I don't remember what all happened on defense except that it was crazy. I just know we won.”

The Huskies got the ball inside but a missed shot resulted in a scramble for the ball and with bodies strewn on the floor, the buzzer sounded.

'I would not say that game was fun until the buzzer went off,” W-MU coach Mitch Wachs said. 'It was a lot more fun when that happened.”

The Wolves took control early and lead 9-3 at the end of the first quarter and stretched it to 17-8 before the Huskies scored six straight. The Wolves went on a 5-2 run and it was 22-16 at halftime.

'At halftime, I just told them we have to play the best 16 minutes that we've played,” Fink said. 'Keep it simple and play hard. Don't leave anything to be questioned, don't leave anything to be doubted. We knocked them out of the zone and made them play some man. We did not back down from their size. I thought that was the difference in the second half.”

It was a huge difference as the Huskies went on a 13-1 run in the first 4 minutes of the third quarter to take a 29-23 lead.

Wachs called timeout and that stopped the run.

'We turned it over on the first two possessions of the half and that led to easy shots that gave them momentum,” Wachs said. 'We weren't moving our feet on defense and I thought we got really passive. They took advantage of it.”

Keetyn Townsley scored 10 seconds after the timeout to start a 9-1 run that included Keely Malone's triple at the buzzer that gave W-MU a 32-30 lead starting the fourth and final frame.

'At the half, I told the girls if they were going to beat us, they had to do it on threes and they hit six of them,” Fink said. 'We chose to give them that instead of letting them pound it inside. We tried to take that inside game away and we did a better job at it than in the past. But their size still got to us, especially rebounding.”

Jami Wilkerson led the Wolves with 12 points, making half of W-MU's six 3-pointers. Buffington, who had missed two free throws when the score was 1-0, finished with eight points and fellow freshmen Melinda Oepping had seven points while Malone hit two treys.

Alyssa Brase had nine points and Sweeting six in their last game for the Huskies. Freshman Dani Laughlin had a team high 11 points and fellow freshman Abi Stransky scored seven. Kayla Cerny had two points.

Brase hit a trey to start the fourth stanza and Kyndal Townsley answered with hr own 3-pointer for a 35-33 W-MU lead. Stransky tied it and Sweeting gave the Huskies a 37-35 lead. A triple from Wilkerson and a Buffington two made it 40-37 W-MU.

'The girls gave it everything they had,” Fink said. 'I have to give them credit for that. We were not real aggressive going to the basket early on. Our defense played well enough to keep us in the game at all times. We have never been a real strong offensive team but I thought we had just enough, turned out we were one short.”

W-MU had won at home 43-25 and 45-30 at Highland earlier this season.

'It's a cliché, but it's hard to beat a team three times,” Wachs said. 'We were turning the ball over and missing our shots in the third quarter and that is never a good recipe for winning basketball. Then in the fourth quarter we did a better job of taking care of the ball and converting some of our shots. We shot plenty of threes, we should've made some.

'We are just happy to survive and advance this time of year.”

Highland ends its season at 6-17. W-MU (12-10) advances to play No. 11 Notre Dame Tuesday at Burlington.