The final seconds during the Manawa girls’ basketball game on Friday, Jan. 4 will be talked about for a long time as a technical foul was called on I-S coach Mark Wester after the final horn had sounded. This placed Manawa’s Paige Schernecker at the line, who promptly made both attempts, giving the Lady Wolves a 37-36 victory. It was their first conference win.
The final eight minutes saw two ties and six lead changes. The Lady T-Birds held a two point at 29-27 entering the final quarter. Katelyn Langman’s basket gave Manawa their first lead since early in the second quarter. Brooke Phillips and Jane Oligney put the Lady T-Birds back in the lead. Phillips’ basket gave the T-Birds their final lead with 2:14 left to play.
Manawa’s Autumn Ferg was fouled with 13.6 seconds to play. Ferg missed both attempts. With the clock ticking away the Lady Wolves had two shots roll off the rim before the T-Birds gained possession only to turn the ball over with 1.9 seconds to play.
Confusion reigned during the final seconds as one official signaled traveling and the other signaled the game was over. That is when the tide turned to the bizarre as Wester ran on to the court to express his viewpoint and was hit with the technical foul.
Defense ruled the night as the largest lead of the game came late in the first half as the Lady T-Birds opened up an eight point lead at 21-13 with 46 seconds left in the first half.
Langman led the Lady Wolves with 12 points while Schernecker chipped in with 10. Oligney led the T-Birds with 12 points.
The Lady Wolves travel to Amherst on Friday, Jan. 11.