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Possibly the biggest lesson Berkshire Badgers girls basketball coach Dennis Lory has learned in his 30-plus years as a coach is not to panic.
That especially came to fruition for his team in a recent sectional semi-final battle with the LaBrae Vikings on the Badger’s home floor as they played possibly the worst first half of the season but were able to regroup late in the game to claim a thrilling 45-41 overtime victory.
“We sure didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Lory said. “The one thing I may have learned and believed in, though, even when I was coaching at Cardinal ,as well, is that if you don’t panic and keep working hard, no matter how you’re playing, there’s always a chance to win.”
Paced by a much tougher defensive effort in the second half, led by Lexi Boyk and Joanne Miller, Bekshire was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Berkshire’s season would three days later in a 45-31 loss to No. 3 Garfield, but the 2017-18 team was happy with its 15-8 season.
“Our shots weren’t falling tonight,” Boyk, the talented sophomore guard said. “We just had to get it going as a team. Coach told us at the half that we just needed to keep pressing on defense, and we stepped up in the second half and got it done. Our heads were down after that first half, but we didn’t lose focus on what we had to do, and it worked out well for us.”
Berkshire committed 15 turnovers in that first half, trailing 25-12. Notably, senior post Kayla White was the other Badger who could get things going, scoring eight points in the half.
In the second half, Boyk had five steals, including a crucal pair in the game’s final four minutes of the fourth quarter. Miller and White shut down LaBrae’s inside game, and Berkshire eventually forced overtime.
In that fourth period, Boyk first stole the ball near midcourt and drove for a layup that actually found the bottom of the nets. As the Vikings (8-14) moved upcourt looking to score a layup of their own, though, Boyk again picked the ball cleanly inside the frontcourt and fed the ball to Cheyenne Bosse, who nailed a long 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 35-31 with 2:23 to play.
After Marissa Roberts extended the lead to 37-31 with a pair of free throws, Cat Lillibridge found Bosse in the left corner, and the senior drained another bomb, setting up a frantic finish in the last seconds of the game.
With 28.8 ticks left , Lillibridge found Rachel Breckenridge for her only basket of the game from 3-point land to tie the contest, and neither team got near the basket again before the final horn.
The Badgers then scored the first five points of the overtime period from the free throw line to open a lead they held on to for the win.
Bosse scored eight of her nine points in the fourth period to spark the offensive efforts for Berkshire.
“Our shots just didn’t fall in the first half or the third period, but when I finally hit the first one in the last quarter, I felt confident we could still win the game,” Bosse said. “Once we hit a couple shots, we started playing better too. We ride our defense most of the time anyway, hoping to set up the offense with defense, and tonight we got it done when we absolutely had to.”
White was the only Badger in double digits scoring with 16 points to go with six rebounds.
Berkshire will lose key seniors to graduation, but there are young players expected to step into key roles next season.