BROOKINGS The Brookings girls basketball team erased a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime on Friday night and that led to a 55-49 victory over Watertown in their season opener at Bob Jostad Gymnasium.
Our kids made a bunch of big plays, said Brookings head coach Mitch McLagan. Our press sped them up a little bit [in the fourth quarter], but we had a bunch of kids that made plays. Our coaching staff has talked about how those comeback wins dont happen if you dont have something special. We have a special group that really cares about each other. When you have a bunch of people in one room that care about each other, thats how comebacks happen.
Brookings trailed 42-22 with 5:13 to play. The Bobcats then went on a 16-0 run to cut the lead to 44-38 with 2:15 left. The Arrows then made two free throws to make it 46-39 but the Bobcats responded with a lay up from Sloan McLagan and three free throws from Logan Smidt to make it 46-44 with 15 seconds left.
On the ensuing inbound pass the Bobcats tied up a Watertown ball handler and that led to a jump ball. The possession arrow went to Brookings and the Bobcats had the ball with 12 seconds left. Smidt took the inbound pass and dished it off to Macy Even on the right elbow. She spun past her defender and layed it in to tie the game with five seconds left.
The Bobcats then fouled Molly Hendricks on the inbound pass and she would head to the free throw line with 0.6 seconds left to try and give the Arrows the lead. She missed them both and the game went to overtime.
We definitely had momentum going into overtime and our kids felt confident, McLagan said. We made really big plays on the defensive end and thats where it started.
Lily Thompson made a lay up on the Bobcats first possession of overtime and Lily Mack answered with a three to give the Arrows the lead with 2:52 left in overtime. Kymber Buys would knock down two free throws on the next possession and then Thompson made a jumper to put Brookings up three with just over two minutes left. Even then hit the dagger from beyond the arc on Brookings next possession as that made it 55-49 and neither team scored the rest of the way.
Even finished with a game-high 16 points and McLagan said Friday night showed how much of a special player she is.
Shes a special player. A special player that wants the ball in her hands and is a confident player. With the team that we have, we never thought that game was over. I looked at the clock and saw we were down 20 and I never thought it was over, and its because of players like Macy, McLagan said.
The Bobcats struggled offensively in the first half as they shot just 15% from the field and were 1-of-10 from three. The Cats then shot 50% from the field and were 4-of-9 from beyond the arc in the second half and overtime.
McLagan said he thought his team was just missing some shots in the first half and then in the third quarter his team struggled with Watertowns pressure, but fortunately the Bobcats turned it on in the fourth quarter.
You have to give Watertown credit, they did a good job defensively. Part of it was first game stuff. You knew it would be kind of ugly. I thought we had some good looks early and just missed some shots. Then their defense flustered us, but thankfully we were able to speed them up in the second half and that sparked our offense, McLagan said.
Smidt finished with 13 points and five rebounds. Thompson and Buys each had six points and Buys also grabbed eight boards.
Both teams had trouble taking care of the ball as the Arrows had 36 turnovers and the Bobcats had 29. Brookings scored 38 of its 55 points from turnovers.
Watertown shot 41% from the field and was 4-of-13 from three. The Arrows were led by Mack who had 12 points. Grace Corey had 11 points and eight rebounds.
Brookings went 7-14 last season, but McLagan said this season-opening win was big for one reason.
Its been a long time since we beat Watertown, and beating your rival, thats always big. It was a wonderful crowd tonight. I cant thank the fans enough for how great it was. Were going to celebrate this one, but then we have to get back to work because we have a good Huron team Tuesday and we have to be ready to go,
Brookings will head to Huron next as the Bobcats and Tigers will play at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
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