Heartbreaker: Lady Pioneers clipped on last-second 3-pointer
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The excitement grew in the final period, as the lead exchanged hands several times in the final minutes. But with Warren County leading 55-51 with 24 seconds left in the game, Riverdale answered the call with back-to-back 3’s, including the game-winning shot by Scarlett Lanning at the buzzer.
The 57-56 Riverdale win dropped the Lady Pioneers to 10-5 overall, and 4-4 in district play.
“You hate to lose a game, but this was a very hard-fought, exciting game to be involved in,” said head coach Ann Eades. “The first half was a 3-point shoot-out and our girls did a good job on the defensive boards.
“We did a good job of controlling the ball, but in the final minutes of the game we had a couple of turnovers and missed two big shots from the foul line. Riverdale hit the 3 to pull within one, and we go down and hit one of two from the line, then the 3 from Lanning to win the game. It was disappointing — but a very exciting — game.”
The Lady Pioneers looked to work the ball down in the paint during the opening minutes, with Vanessa Cornelius and Tia Williams scoring under the basket. Warren County was down 12-11 with one minute left in the period when Leanne Pelham hit from behind the arc, and with five seconds left on the clock Leah Cunningham gave her team a 17-12 lead.
Eades said she was especially proud of the performance of Cornelius, who she noted is normally not one of the Lady Pioneers’ main scorers, but is consistently one of the team’s hardest workers.
“Vanessa had a great game,” she said. “She is a very hard worker in practice and each game she shows a lot of improvement. Tonight she gave it everything she had.”
Things heated up in the second period from long range as Riverdale’s Lauren Pilkinton struck for four 3’s in the quarter. The Lady Pioneers answered with back to back-to-back 3’s of their own as the two teams hit eight consecutive 3-pointers. Warren County held a 31-26 lead at the 2:21 mark but struggled on offense for the rest of the period. Riverdale closed out the half with a basket from Anne Marie Lanning but the Lady Pioneers held a 31-29 lead at the break.
Things slowed down in the third period as the two teams’ long-range attack was held to one 3 by Riverdale midway through the period. Cornelius had a pair of baskets in the quarter but Warren County trailed by five with one minute left in the quarter. A basket and a block by Leanne Pelham gave Williams an easy lay-up to end the period down one 44-43.
In the final period tied at 49-49 with 1:37 left on the clock, the Lady Pioneers went to the line for eight attempts, but failed to connect on four of them. Warren County still had hopes of victory with a two-point lead with 15 ticks left on the clock, but Scarlett Lanning’s shot at the buzzer silenced the crowd as the Lady Warriors revenged an earlier loss to Warren County this season.
Leanne Pelham led Warren County with 17 points, followed by Williams and Cunningham with 10 points each. Whitney Pelham hit for eight, Cornelius added seven, Nikki Griffith and Amanda Locke had two points each.
Pilkinton led all scorers with 23 points — including seven 3’s — and Anne Marie Lanning added 12 points to lead Riverdale.