Meg Rogers scored only six points, but her final two points gave the Shenendehowa girls basketball team a key victory.
Rogers drained a long jump shot at the buzzer to give the Plainsmen (10-2) a 49-47 victory over Shaker in last Friday’s Suburban Council North Division game in Latham.
Meg is one of those kids who goes unnoticed most of the time, said Shen coach Ken Strube. `But she always has the toughest defensive assignments, and I think it’s deserving that she gets rewarded for that hard work by hitting the winning shot. I’m just thrilled for her.`
Rogers’ shot thwarted what had been a stunning comeback by Shaker (8-4 league, 10-4 overall). The Blue Bison trailed by as many as 15 points in the third quarter before going on a 24-7 run to take a 47-45 lead late in the fourth quarter.
`I give my kids a lot of credit,` said Shaker coach Emily Caschera. `We had to dig ourselves out of a hole, and they did.`
Shen established control with a pair of first-half runs. The first spurt turned an early 4-2 deficit into a 12-4 lead, and the second ` an 11-0 run ` put the Plainsmen ahead 24-9 in the second quarter. Shaker pulled within eight points of Shen late in the second quarter before Emily Weber sank a jump shot with less than 10 seconds left to give the Plainsmen a 29-19 halftime lead.
Shen increased the advantage to 38-23 early in the third quarter before Shaker’s defense clamped down on the Plainsmen. Using a full-court press, the Blue Bison forced several backcourt turnovers, and although not all of them led to points, it did prevent Shen from scoring at the other end.
`I just thought we were tenacious [on defense] and fought very hard,` said Caschera. `The press obviously worked.`
`They played great defense, but I though that ` rather than taking care of the ball ` we tried to put the nail in the coffin and made some poor decisions with the ball,` said Strube.
Shaker trimmed Shen’s lead to 39-30 at the end of the third quarter, and then got things going early in the fourth quarter when Adrianne Devine hit a three-pointer. Devine hit another three a couple of minutes later to cut the deficit to 41-37, and Mallory Dickson added a basket off an outlet pass from MacKenzie Rowland to get the Blue Bison within two points.
Shen clung to its slim lead until Dickson drained a foul-line jump shot with 1:22 left to tie the game at 45. Shaker then took the lead when Erica Houle stole a backcourt pass and gave it to a wide open Madison Rowland for an uncontested layup.
Weber ` who finished with 14 points ` took matters into her own hands, as she drove the length of the court and was fouled as she took a shot with 35.1 seconds left. The sophomore guard made both free throws to knot the game at 47.
Shaker had a chance to regain the lead with less than 10 seconds left, but Shen’s defense forced a tough shot, and Rogers came up with the rebound and a long outlet pass that Devine deflected out of bounds under Shaker’s basket with 1.7 seconds left. That was enough time for Rogers to take the inbounds pass and hit the game-winning shot.
Devine was all over the court for the Blue Bison. The junior guard finished with 20 points and added eight steals.
`Adrianne Devine played a great game,` said Caschera. `She was the one who was ready to play from the start, and she tried to get everybody else going.`
Strube said the victory not only gave Shen a two-game lead over Shaker in the North Division standings with four games left in the regular season, but also a confidence boost heading toward Sectionals.
`This is really huge for us because it will make us a better, deeper team,` said Strube.
“