Lindside – Haylie Payne spent most of the evening unable to buy a foul shot.
An 0 for 5 showing from the line throughout the first three quarters didn’t inspire much confidence. But Payne never lost hers.
The senior nailed a pair of free throws at the end of regulation to tie the game and hit another pair in the second overtime period to give the Raiders a 58-56 lead as they defeated James Monroe 60-56 Friday night in double overtime in Lindside, claiming the Class A Region 3, Section 1 championship.
Despite the early struggles, Payne wasn’t deterred. Free throws are a strength in her game and knew they’d start falling eventually, even if they waited until the most important moment to drop.
“Usually foul shots are my best shot and that’s what I rely on,” Payne said. “After I missed those first ones I knew I had to pull through and redeem myself and I knew I had to because I want to make it to states this year. In order to do that I knew I had to hit those foul shots.”
In a game that featured 75 free throw attempts with three starters fouling out on each side, two free throw attempts at the end didn’t seem like they would matter.
After taking a 10-9 lead into the second quarter, the host Mavericks yielded a 9-0 run, allowing River View an 18-10 advantage. A 3-pointer from Lilly Jackson after the two teams traded free throws cut it to five but a 3 from Chloe Mitchem and a free throw from Ali Morgan pushed the lead to nine.
The hosts chipped it down to seven heading into the intermission and made a push behind five straight from Adyson Hines in the third quarter.
In a game that saw two overtime periods the answers to each run came frequently and often in the second half with a four-point play courtesy of Trista Lester pushing the lead back to eight at 34-26.
“They just kept clawing back” River View coach Gehrig ‘G” Justice said. “Hats off to them because at halftime we talked that if we could come out and get a five or six-point run we’d break them because we had two opportunities with no shot. Then they started making their run and starting in the fourth I had Haylie and Trista out because we had the lead but I had to get them back in.”
With Hines in foul trouble most of the evening she finally found a groove in the second half.
The junior scored six points during a 13-2 run across the third and fourth quarters that gave James Monroe a 39-36 advantage, its first since leading 10-9.
“Not saying it because she’s my daughter but (Adyson) had a fire in her eyes when we got down,” James Monroe coach Mike Hines said. “I hadn’t seen that all year. She played hard all year long but when we got down the girls looked for her and she had a killer instinct in her eyes. And Haley (Hunnicutt) got in foul trouble so she couldn’t get in any rhythm. When we brought her in we tried to get her quick shots to get in the flow but she just couldn’t get in a rhythm. But for the girls to look for Adyson like that, we got a couple baskets from girls that normally don’t shoot the ball.”
A 3-pointer from Mary Beth Meadows capped the run but River View again had an answer. A jumper from Ali Morgan, a pair of free throws from Lester and Payne’s first made free throws of the evening accounted for a 6-0 run. Four straight from Hines and a free throw from Meadows provided an answer and a 44-42 lead before Payne nailed a pair to secure overtime.
True to the flow of the game, James Monroe opened the extra period with four straight and the two teams found the range later, with three consecutive possessions ending with 3-pointers.
Payne again came through at the line, splitting a pair that gave River View a lead but Sarah Mann provided the equalizer with her own pair at the charity stripe, forcing a second overtime.
Unfortunately for the hosts they lost their big gun in Hines, who was forced to the bench after picking up her fifth foul in the forts OT period. With limited depth, offense became a struggle with the Raiders closing the game out a the free throw line. They made three of their free throw attempts in second overtime period with Kaylee Blankenship’s two-pointer at the end serving as the only field goal of the sixth and final frame.
“If we made a few more foul shots we wouldn’t have been in overtime,” Justice said. “Haylie’s been one of our best foul shooters all year. Ali’s probably at 70 percent on the season and that’s a senior and a junior that stepped up. The rest of them stepped up when the others fouled out but the ones that fouled out played a heck of a game.”
Hines finished with a game-high 25 points while Lester led River View with 17. Morgan added 15 and Payne 11.
Both teams advance to next week’s Region 3 co-finals where River View will host Greenbrier West and James Monroe will travel to Webster County. Both games will be played on Wednesday with the winners advancing to the state tournament the following week.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
