It was the type of ending befitting of the Berkshire-Cardinal rivalry.
The Huskies appeared poised to earn a season split against their neighbors, but an Alexis Johnson bucket with under 20 seconds left tied the game. Johnson, who was fouled on the play, made the ensuing free throw, which gave Berkshire a hard fought victory 29-28 on Saturday evening.
Cardinal (3-16) had a chance to win the game, but a shot from inside the lane didn’t go in. The Badgers (4-14) managed to secure the rebound and ran out the few remaining seconds left on the clock.
“I can’t say enough about those Cardinal kids,” Berkshire Coach Dennis Lory said. “They played hard, played well. That’s the most aggressive we’ve seen them play all year, and I’m sure Coach (Luke) Kruse would agree with that. With my kids, we had a senior make a play at the end.”
“We knew we weren’t going to come out of this with a loss,” said Johnson, the senior who made that play. “We work so hard every time in practice, and losing just wasn’t an option.”
Trailing 28-27 with less than 40 seconds left in the game, the Badgers called a timeout. Senior Megan Arnold thought Berkshire was a little nervous as the team huddled during the stoppage. It was her coach, though, who calmed them down.
“He was smiling. Seeing him smile and relaxed was relaxing for the whole team,” admitted Arnold. “We were all jittery, and he just comes in and says here’s what were going to do — we’re going to give the ball to Alexis and we’re going to run our play, and we did and it worked.”
“When he called the ball, I thought this is why my coach has coached for so long,” added Arnold. ”That was the perfect play to run because Alexis is so level headed. She’s so strong. We knew it was the perfect play, and I knew that even if she didn’t make the shot, she would draw the foul.”
Lory didn’t hesitate during the timeout to call a play he ran twice, unsuccessfully earlier in the contest.
“The last play of the game was going to AJ all the way,” Lory beamed. “There was no doubt she was going to get the ball. We have a chance to win the game. I said, ‘AJ, you gotta step up and make the play. You do it in practice every day.’ We had a set play we knew we were going to run. We ran it earlier in the game and she got called for traveling twice. This time I told her don’t travel. I said just go to the basket hard, and she did.”
Once Johnson got the ball, she did just what her coach had instructed and went to the basket, where she drew a foul. Nothing was going to stop her.
“Coach Ronyak told me to play through the foul,” said Johnson. “It felt like they were fouling me all night, but just didn’t call it.”
This time, though, the referees did make the call.
The senior then stepped to the line and calmly sank the biggest free throw of her life to give her team a one-point lead.
The Huskies had enough time to score, but the ball bounced off the rim and into the hands of the Badgers.
Berkshire would not have been in position to win the game without the effort of Megan Arnold, who carried the Badgers in the third quarter. Arnold scored five of her team’s nine points, pulled down several key rebounds, and was a defensive menace to Cardinal junior Haley Adams.
“I knew the first three minutes of the second half were the most important minutes of the game because that’s where we get our momentum going again after halftime,” said Arnold. “I know my role is to rebound and my role is to shoot when I’m open. I had those opportunities in the third quarter and kept my head straight and took them.”
In addition to Arnold, fellow senior Anna Carlson came off the bench and played a key role. Carlson, who tore her ACL last season, suffered a strained MCL in the same knee playing against Fairport.
“Thank God,” Carlson said, fighting back tears when asked what the game meant. ”I’ve been doing part practices, half practices, because I strained my MCL in the Fairport game. Being able to just step on the court today just made everything worth it. This game, I’ve really been looking forward to — not as much as the home game, ‘cause you’ve got to defend your home court, but to come here and show them what we can do means everything, especially my senior year.”
While Carlson didn’t say anything, her teammates and coach acknowledged she played the game in a lot of pain.
“Nothing drives me crazier that sitting on the bench watching my team battling their way to the top without me, so being able to go into the game and contribute meant everything,” said Carlson.
The senior was not going to let her knee keep her from playing against Cardinal. The game just meant too much.
Johnson finished with six points, seven rebounds and two steals. Breanna Pennypacker led the Badgers in scoring with eight points. Kylie Scott added five points. Arnold scored seven, pulled in five rebounds, and had a blocked shot.
Haley Adams led all players with nine points and recorded seven rebounds. Cheyenne Polverine added six points, and Lexy Fenselon chipped in five for Cardinal.
The Huskies played aggressive defense throughout the game. They limited Berkshire to single-digit scoring in each quarter, including five in the fourth quarter. The half court trap they ran helped them head into halftime with a 16-15 lead.
“We wanted to show something new to them that they didn’t see in the first game, and it was quite effective,” the Cardinal coach said. ”We played good, solid man-to-man defense in the second half. Our trap made them think, and that was our goal: we wanted to make them think. Coming out of the half, we knew they’d make some adjustments, and we played a more normal man-to-man set and played good solid defense the whole game.”
Both teams, Kruse pointed out, were keyed in on defense all night. The defensive struggle came down to a final shot, and the Badgers headed back to Burton with their biggest win of the season.
“I feel great for all the kids, but mostly for my three seniors (Arnold, Carlson, and Johnson),” said Lory. “Last year we lost to Cardinal twice, and for the first time in a long time, we lost to them and we wanted to redeem ourselves. Needless to say, in both games they stepped up and did what had to be done.”
Perhaps Arnold summed it up the best for Berkshire.
“Oh my gosh, best of my life,” she exclaimed. “Berkshire-Cardinal, from seventh grade through now, has always been the biggest games of my career. To win not only at home, but also on their floor with their fans, was huge. It means the world to me. It’s the best feeling ever.”