Lady Tigers roar back at J-B, but come up short in OT

A determined Madison Olberding ignores the contact of at least three Lady Eagle defenders and pulls down an offensive rebound in the second half of the Lady Tigers 39-34 overtime loss at Johnson-Brock last Thursday. The Falls City High senior helped her team scratch-and-claw their way back into the ballgame after falling behind by six at halftime. Olberding finished with 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards – both team-highs – and scored eight points. Photo by Jim Langan.

A slow start ultimately overshadowed Falls City High’s third-quarter comeback last Thursday night, as the Lady Tigers fell in overtime, 39-34, at Johnson-Brock.

After trailing for nearly the entire second and third quarters, the Lady Tigers briefly captured a 20-19 lead with less than a minute to go in the third. Then, junior point guard Bailey Vrtiska scored her only two points of the contest on a six-foot jumper in the lane to put FC ahead 23-22 early in the fourth before the teams traded leads on a pair of three-point shots midway through the fourth.

J-B’s Tori Rowe struck first with just over four minutes to play and put her team ahead, 25-23. Alyssa Frederick quickly answered on a three-ball from the left wing to put the Lady Tigers back in front, 26-25. Frederick, one of two freshmen seeing regular minutes for FC, hit again from deep in overtime – FC’s only points in the extra session – and finished with a team-high 10 points.

FC increased their lead to 31-28 on a Libby Bauman two-pointer with 20 seconds left and it appeared the Lady Tiger might escape with a win.

J-B’s Kendra Alberts had different ideas, though, and drained a rainbow, game-tying three-pointer from the left wing to tie it up with 8.6 seconds left. J-B went on to score eight of the 11 points in OT, including 6-of-11 at the free-throw line, to seal the victory.

FC managed just three made basekts from the floor in the first half, but kept pace with the Eagles and trailed by only six, 13-7, at the intermission.

The Lady Tigers edged J-B 12-8 in the third quarter and 12-10 in the fourth.

Senior Madison Olberding pulled down 10 rebounds – six offensive – to go with five steals, three assists and eight points to lead FC, while junior Sydney Armbruster scored eight, grabbed six boards, dished out five assists and swiped four steals.

Senior Brooke Scheitel, one of FC’s top scorers, left in the third quarter after crashing hard to the floor and never returned.

FC, which entered the day shooting less than 30 percent from the floor and shy of 60 percent from the FT line, struggled again. FC finished 14 of 50 from the floor and 3-for-8 at the stripe. Although, J-B wasn’t much better (30 percent on FG’s), but hit 12 of 20 free throws.

FC built a nine-point halftime lead at Marysville, KS last Tuesday, but the hosts rallied in the second half en route to a 47-39 win. MHS held FC to three points in the third quarter and tallied 17 more points in the final 16 minutes.

FC was balanced scoring, as Scheitel and Sydney Armbruster totaled nine points each, while Frederick and Vrtiska each posted eight. FC finished 5-of-9 from behind the three-point line, but were again on the wrong end of a sizable free-throw advantage by their opponent. MHS finished 19-for-38 at the stripe, while FC was just 8-for-19.  

FC, now 4-8, will look to get back on track tonight against winless Tri County (0-11) at Prichard Auditorium. It is the first time since February of 2001 that FC played at Prichard. FC and the Lady Trojans square off at 5:30 p.m., or immediately following the JV girl’s game.

FC travels to Maryville, MO Friday night with hopes  of avenging a one-point loss to the Spoofhounds at the LeBlond Holiday tournament and then host Elmwood-Murdock Saturday afternoon at the high school. Friday’s game with Maryville is scheduled for 6 p.m. and Saturday’s game will tip-off at approximately 2 p.m.  

Scoring vs. J-B
    FC – Olberding 8, Scheitel 3, Frederick 10, S. Armbruster 8, Vrtiska 2, Bauman 3.
    J-B – Alberts 8, Rowe 11, E. Bohling 11, Newman 2, Dunekacke 1, J. Bohling 6.

Scoring at Marysville, KS
    FC – Scheitel 9, Olberding 5, Frederick 8, S. Armbruster 9, Vrtiska 8.

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