Girls’ Basketball Takes Win in Intense Overtime Thriller

The Big Red girls’ basketball team won a thriller Friday night with a 63-55 overtime win over Marianapolis Prep. Trailing for much of the game, Exeter’s girls showed great heart fighting back to steal the victory.In the first half, the team struggled to adjust to face a team of the Golden Knights’ caliber after having played back-to-back games versus inferior opponents on last Monday and Tuesday. Marianapolis’ pressure defense tested Exeter’s offense and forced poor shots, while their offense was able to use a combination of three pointers and interior play to gain an eight point lead at the half.Despite being down 28-20 going into halftime, Big Red stayed positive in the locker room and were able to make the adjustments needed to make a comeback. One of the adjustments was to turn up the defensive pressure, specifically taking away the three point shooters that burned them in the first half. On the offensive side, the team started to use the three point shot in their favor with senior Yvonne Dean-Bailey and upper Courtney Henrich making some long range jumpers. Lower Peace Kabari also stepped up her game in the second half, slashing and driving to the basket for easy points.With less than two minutes left in the half, Exeter was still trailing. Henrich was able to grab an offensive board and convert on her one-and-one opportunity after being fouled to narrow the deficit. Then senior and captain Nicole Heavirland got a breakaway layup to bring the game within two points.With less than a minute left in the game, Marianapolis had the ball and Henrich forced a jump ball in the low post and with the possession arrow favoring the Big Red, they were able to get one final chance to win the game or force it to OT (over-time). On offense, the ball found its way to Kabari who nailed a three-pointer to put Exeter up by one with only three seconds remaining. Big Red had their first lead since early in the first half.Marianapolis inbounded the ball to their point guard who pushed the ball up the court. With 1.8 seconds left, Dean-Bailey fouled the ball handler. “I was upset, but it was completely out of my control. It was a junk call and I was rattled, but the team all came back together to get our heads back in the game.” Since Marianapolis was in the double bonus, they had two opportunities at the charity stripe to either win the game, tie it, or lose it. But they were only able to make one of the two free-throws, tying the game at 50 and making it go to overtime.In spite of going from winning the game to going into OT within a matter of seconds, the team still felt confident. “We wanted to finish it in regulation. We didn’t really have a goal to go into OT,” lower Michaela Streep said.“[Senior] Maddie Firkey actually was the one who really got our heads together before the overtime. We knew that with three minutes, we could push up our lead and really stick it to them,” Dean-Bailey said.Thanks to great defense and some clutch free throws from Heavirland at the end of OT, Big Red outscored the Golden Knights 13- 5. The win pushed their win streak to three (which is now four, with a 53-44 Saturday win against Worcester).With only four games left on the schedule, the postseason is beginning to finally come into the picture. Exeter is currently the only undefeated team in the Eight Schools League and will guarantee them the number one seed and home court advantage with a win over Andover on the Jan. 22, 2014. “I think home court advantage is so important. Also our fans have been awesome this year. Special shout-out to Matt Greaves and Bronwyn Shields for being by far the rowdiest and most dedicated fans; I can always hear both of them even all the way over on the bench,” Henrich said. “I think that if we stick to playing as a team we will go far.”