Horde makes finals
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West Rutland’s Katie Lincoln (22) goes up for a layup between Danville’s Elliot Cortney (left) and Elliot Tanna during Monday night’s semifinal game at the Barre Auditorium. The Golden Horde defeated Danville to earn a spot in Saturday’s Division IV state championship game at the Barre Auditorium at noon. STEFAN HARD / TIMES ARGUS |
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By Dennis Jensen Staff Writer - Published: March 3, 2009
BARRE — In the first half of its Division IV semifinal game, West Rutland hit 21 percent of its field goals, their ferocious defense was left somewhere back in Hinchey Gym and Katie Lincoln, their leading scorer, had just two points.
Things were looking especially dim when Danville took a 45-30 lead midway through the third period.
Westside coach Carl Serrani called a timeout, the Horde's trademark full-court pressure came back into play and senior forward Emily Sumner picked up the slack for her team. West Rutland turned it up later in the third and pulled away in the fourth quarter to pull out a 66-54 win at the Barre Auditorium Monday.
Sumner scored 16 of her game-high 21 points in the second half for No. 1, 17-5 Westside.
"We needed to get fired up," she said. "This being our first time here, it was just nerves."
Sumner, who hit three 3-pointers, got the crowd going after she stuck a trey from the baseline to make it 49-47, Danville, with seconds to go in the third.
Amanda Ames (eight points) hit a layup and Lincoln (15 points) scored on another layup to make it 51-49, Westside, early in the fourth. It was West Rutland's first lead since early in the second quarter.
And the Golden Horde was off. Marissa Smyrski (nine points off the bench) knocked down a short jumper and Sumner canned a 17-footer to make it 55-49 with five minutes to go.
West Rutland extended its lead to 63-52 off more turnovers from the free throw line and another trey by Sumner and coasted the rest of the way.
Serrani said he never yells at his girls when he lays down strategy during a timeout but said he made it very clear to them that they were not playing up to their game when he called that pivotal timeout after falling behind by 15 points.
"We were being lazy on defense," Serrani said. "I bawled them out. I told them to play defense or there's five other girls who will. In the first half we didn't play defense, which is our game."
The No. 5, 15-8 Little Indians worked their inside game extremely well, getting 14 points in the paint while taking an 18-15 lead after one.
Brooke Griswold (11 points) canned a trey from the top to make it 22-20, Westside, with 5:33 left in the second. Then the bottom fell out for the Golden Horde.
Courtney Elliot (16 points, 16 rebounds) hit two big shots and Molly Moran (18 points) scored on a putback and hit two free throws to help the Indians take a 32-24 lead at the break.
West Rutland hit only one field goal over the first three minutes of the third, while Danville continued to bang the ball inside. Moran knocked down a trey to make it 41-27 and, a minute later, Moran scored inside to give the Indians their biggest lead of the game, 45-30, with four minutes left in the third.
West Rutland responded with a 11-0 run, making it a four-point game (45-41) with a minute to go in the third.. Sumner meshed a trey, again from the right baseline, to close the gap to just two points (49-47) after three.
Sumner said she had no reservations that her team would come back.
"I didn't have a doubt in my mind that we were going to take this game," she said.
Serrani said Sumner picked a great night to come through with a huge game.
"She can shoot," he said.
Turnovers made the difference in the game. The Golden Horde forced 11 Danville turnovers in the second quarter and nine more in the third. Danville finished with 34 turnovers, West Rutland 20.
Both teams finished with 39 rebounds. Sumner had 10 boards, nine in the second half.
dennis.jensen@rutlandherald.com
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