By Matt Schooley
The Salem High School girls basketball team, in cruise control against Timberlane, needed the accelerator in the final minute to earn a 50-43 home victory on Friday, Dec. 14.
With about three minutes remaining in the contest, a Sarah Raye steal and layup pushed the Blue Devils’ lead to 46-33, but the Owls swooped back into the game in the blink of an eye.
Salem turnovers and missed free throws helped Timberlane score the next 10 points, cutting the lead to 46-43 with 42 seconds remaining, when SHS senior Michaela Galvin toed the free-throw line.
She hit back iron on the front end of the one-and-one, but alertly grabbed her own rebound and was fouled again, making one of two attempts to give her team a four-point lead.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Caitlin Peters stole the ball, was fouled and made both free throws.
“I think we got tired towards the end, and had some breakdowns defensively. That by no means is taking away from (Timberlane’s) firepower,” said Salem head coach Elizabeth Briggs, whose team moved to 2-0. “I’m trying to see who is going to be playing on a regular basis. It wasn’t a game to experiment. People need a breath at the pace we were playing at, but today wasn’t a day for me to test out new players.”
Jessica Sexton scored 10 points in the first quarter en route to 15 in the game before fouling out.
Junior Amanda Saab played a solid game defensively and chipped in eight points.
Timberlane’s Samantha Wheeler was unstoppable, using an inside game and solid free throw shooting to net 31 points. But Salem allowed only three other Owls to score the team’s other 12 points.
In fact, Salem held the visitors to single-digit scoring in each of the first three quarters before the 21-point fourth-quarter burst.
“(Timberlane’s comeback) was about free throws. We didn’t nail them, and we gave them too many,” said Briggs. “We need to go deeper into the bench. That’s our immediate goal. In the long term, we just need to work on getting in better shape.”
Game notes
Danielle Stoodley scored eight points for the Lady Blue Devils. Galvin chipped in six markers, and Peters added five.