Southwestern rallies to capture Class B2 Final at Buff State

Mar 4, 20183 min read

Southwestern’s girls basketball team kept knocking at the door during the Section VI, B2 Final against Wilson on Sunday afternoon. And knocking, and knocking.

Finally, the door opened.

The Trojans went home with a 45-42 win over the Lakewomen at Buffalo State to claim the crown, and knock off the defending champions. They earned it by scoring the final four points of the game to win after trailing almost all of the game.

“It boiled down with this group to heart,” Southwestern coach Dave Turnbull said. “They battled, and battled on the boards.”

The game’s climatic moments came in the final minute. The Trojans were behind, 42-41, with 22 seconds left when Erin Radack was fouled. She had two shots, down a point, with a Sectional title possible on the line. What youngster hasn’t practiced that in the driveway?

“My foot was shaking. I’m not going to lie,” Radack said. “I had to do it for the team. We do it for each other. I just wanted it so bad, and I know we all wanted. I just knew I had to knock them down.”

The Lakewoman still had a chance to win. But Alanna Dibble blocked a shot with 17 seconds left, grabbed the ball, and was immediately fouled. It was a similar situation to Radack’s, with a slightly larger margin for error.

“Alanna has been a kid I rely on,” Turnbull said. “She gets 15 points and 15 rebounds every game. She threw up an airball from the line against Gowanda, and I’ve been kidding her about that. Tonight she more than made up for that.”

Dibble got her 15 points to lead Southwestern in scoring. Radack added nine points.

Both teams looked a bit nervous as the game between teams at the opposite ends of Section VI (about 100 miles apart) began. The squads more or less traded baskets, missed shots and turnovers in the early going. Carissa Minarovich’s 15-footer gave Southwestern an 8-7 lead with about two minutes left in the quarter – the time they were ahead until Radack’s heroics.

The Lakewomen responded with a couple of baskets before the end of the quarter to take an 11-9 lead. In those eight minutes, Wilson scored four of its five field goals from right around the basket. In other words, they were getting better shots – a good sign for their hopes.

The Lakewomen stayed in the range of three to five points ahead for the first several minutes of the second quarter. Then they put on a 7-2 spurt. The last three points came on a bit of luck. Skylar Munnikhuysen found herself well behind the three-point arc with time in the half almost gone. With nothing else to do, she threw the ball at the basket. Fortune was on her side, as the ball banked through the basket. That gave Wilson a 25-16 lead at the half, and it figured to have a big psychological lift running in to the locker room.

“I told the kids at halftime, we’ve been punched in the mouth before,” Turnbull said. “We made a couple of adjustments. I thought the girls were taken a little aback because Erin wasn’t taking as many touches as she usually does. They stymied our break. I thought we were able to make adjustments that allowed us to get back in the game.”

The effect was slow in coming. Southwestern earned a 10-7 edge in points in the third quarter, but that only cut the lead to 32-26.

In the fourth quarter, though, the game slowly turned around. The Trojans started getting rebounds, and converted them to either baskets or trips to the line. Those extra opportunities played a huge role in the finish.

“I said, we have to get every rebound because we didn’t get a rebound in the first half,” Turnbull said. “We have eight kids” on the team. “That group of eight is so close. They never give up.”

“It’s a great feeling to come out on top when it really matters,” Radack said.

Now it’s on to the Class B Final, which will be held on Wednesday against Class B1 winner Fredonia – another defending champion.

“We played Fredonia a couple of times,” Turnbull said. Coach Carol “Zirkle will have a lot of adjustments for us. It will be a heck of a battle on Wednesday.”