BY SAPNA PATHAK

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t clean and it certainly wasn’t soothing to the nerves.

But it made for the second-best win Wayne Thomson ever saw his team pull off. Entering the quarterfinals of this year’s Class I girls basketball tournament, Thomson’s turnover-prone group had to squash its inconsistencies if it hoped to upset top-seeded Kearsarge.

The team didn’t eliminate them completely, but John Stark’s Lady Generals did come back from a 12-point deficit to end Kearsarge’s season.

And they did it in last-minute, overtime fashion.

With 3.8 seconds left, center/forward Libby Cullerot sank  probably the two most pressure-packed free throws of the night to tie the game, 33-33. The Generals outscored the Cougars, 6-3, in extra frames for the 39-36 win.

“There’s no one I’d rather have at that free-throw line with the game on the line than her,” said an elated Thomson, whose eyes were still red from tears of joy. “I couldn’t watch, though, but I had to think we had a realistic chance of coming back.”

And the comeback didn’t come as a huge surprise to Thomson, who watched his team fight back from a 23-point hole against Kearsarge during the regular season. John Stark ended up losing that game, but this time a perfectly executed stall may have been the difference.

With 1-minute, 27 seconds left and the Generals holding a one-point lead, Kearsarge guard Alexa Gaines turned the ball over. In a timely display of ball movement and pass selection, the Generals stripped 50 seconds off the game clock before senior Corinne Fenner was fouled.

“We are up. No matter what happens at the line, we are up,” Thomson told his girls during the timeout before Fenner’s foul shots.

Though Fenner missed both shots, she redeemed herself after junior guard Elyssa Feliciano stole the ball and found Fenner underneath for a layup with 4.5 seconds left. Fenner missed her foul shot earned while hitting the layup, but the Generals’ disciplined defense did not allow the Cougars a good look at the basket.

The Cullerot-Fenner combo kept the Generals alive, earning them a trip to the Final Four, where they were scheduled to face Lebanon on Wednesday, Feb. 21.

Erin Clarke and Kristen Fratini had four points each, including a clutch 3-pointer late in the final quarter from Fratini. Olivia Cray, who fouled out on the first play of overtime, added two points, as did Fenner and Feliciano.

Cullerot led the locals with 18 points, including eight from the foul line, 16 rebounds, one block and one steal.

“I knew I had to make those shots if we wanted overtime,” said Cullerot. “But after I made the first one, it made the second one harder because I knew we were so close. I just got it out of my head, dribbled a couple times, set and shot. Nothing more. Nothing less.”