Maroons survive Panthers’ comeback
O’FALLON, ILL. • When host O’Fallon rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie Belleville West Monday night, senior guard Abby Hanger wanted to make sure her teammates remained calm.
And they did as center Samantha Voegtle, guard Erika McCaster and Hanger all scored points down the stretch to help the Maroons to a 48-42 triumph over the Panthers in a Southwestern Conference game at the Panther Dome Monday night.
West improved to 17-9 overall and 9-3 in the conference as McCaster (15), Hanger (15) and Voegtle (14) combined for 44 points. The Panthers fell to 14-12, 6-6 as Taylor Klingelhoefer scored a team-best 13 points.
“We knew that we just had to stay under control and get back focus and if we just rebounded everything would be just fine,” she said. “We just got a little out of sorts but we came back together and pulled it out.”
It was Hanger who gave West its 10-point lead when she drained a 3-pointer from deep in the left corner 26 seconds into the fourth quarter to put the Maroons in front 40-30.
In fact, Hanger had given her team a 37-30 advantage after three quarters when she knocked down a 3-point shot from the left wing with 14.3 seconds left in the third.
But O’Fallon didn’t quit and outscored the Maroons 12-2 to tie the game at 42-42 after a Michelle Lay bucket with 3:31 to go.
“Give O’Fallon credit,” West coach Clayton Fisher said. “They made a great run at us and, of course, we had a lull where we didn’t execute properly. And it cost us. Even when you don’t do things right, you’ve got to take advantage of it. Give O’Fallon all the credit in the world. They took advantage of our weaknesses.”
However, the Maroons were able to re-group as they started to feed the ball inside to Voegtle, or McCaster and Hanger were able to dribble-drive to the basket, and get fouled while shooting.
McCaster, who made six of seven free throws for the contest, made two when she was fouled by the Panthers’ Stephanie Copelin with 1:52 left to put West up 44-42. Copelin then fouled out trying to stop a Voegtle shot with 56.3 seconds remaining.
Voegtle made both foul shots for a 46-42 lead. Then Hanger sealed the victory with two free throws with 8.1 seconds to go after she was fouled by Ally Fore.
“It’s all about making plays at crucial parts (of the game),” O’Fallon coach Ryan Massey said. “We didn’t execute defensively early in that game. They ran their sets very, very well. We didn’t communicate and that put us at a deficit.”
The Panthers, who face West next Tuesday in the Illinois Class 4A Belleville East Regional semifinals, also didn’t shoot very well from the field making only 16 of 43 shots and the charity stripe in the fourth quarter when they made only three of eight foul shots and six of 12 for the night.
West, on the other hand, made 16 of 35 from the field and 12 of 14 from the free throw line.
“I was very happy with the offensive end,” Fisher said. “On the defensive end, it’s the same old story. It’s still not where I want it to be.”
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