Lady Samsons dropped in overtime by UWS JV team

IRONWOOD - The UW-Superior JV Yellowjackets stung Gogebic Community College 85-82 in overtime at the Lindquist Center on Wednesday night.

From the time GCC's Sam Ofstad sank a twisting 13-foot shot from the lane with 18:40 left in the first half to 19.4 seconds in the game, the Lady Samsons held the lead.

And when Brittany Raisanen buried a triple from the right corner and Britni Kisul tossed in two free throws with 4:06 remaining in the game, Gogebic looked in control with a 65-53 advantage.

"We had a couple of chances to put them away," Gogebic coach Mark Movrich said. "But that's been the story all season. We relax and they get back into the game."

But the Lady Samsons play an aggressive brand of basketball, especially on defense. Kisul, Raisanen and Samantha Robl fouled out and Ofstad and Heather Selin played with four fouls down the stretch.

UWS stormed back to tie the game at 67-67 with 19.4 seconds left in the game. But Ofstad was fouled with 17.9 seconds remaining and calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one to go up 69-67.

The Yellowjackets missed on a long shot, the ball bounced around and Ofstad knocked the ball off the foot of a UWS player and it went out of bounds with 4.3 seconds left.

The Lady Samsons tried to inbounds the ball and lost it. UWSs Molly Atherton picked up the ball and let it fly. The ball swished through the net with 1.4 seconds left to tie the game at 69-69 and send it into overtime.

"I always believed we could come back," Yellowjacket coach Donald Mulhern said. "Our players are mentally tough and have tenacity. It's a credit to them they came back.

"Not one thing brought us back. Late in the game, we got the ball inside and started scoring. GCC's perimeter pressure is phenomenal, awesome. We couldn't get the ball inside because they are so quick with their pressure. We had no free looks. Their foul trouble helped us to be able to get the ball inside. I thought this was a fun game for the fans. It was an up and down the court game with a lot of pressing. I hope the fans enjoyed it."

The comeback seemed to energize UWS for the OT. The Yellowjackets took a 72-70 lead, but then Selin, who was not feeling well, buried a 3-ball from the right corner to get the lead back with three minutes remaining.

UWS kept pounding the ball inside and Atherton's left-hand hook put UWS up 78-75 with 1:21 left in overtime.

But Selin struck again with a 3 from on top to knot the game at 78-78 at the 1:12 mark.

Ofstad drilled a shot from the right elbow and made two free throws with 30 seconds left to give the Lady Samsons an 82-81 advantage. But Allyssa Lindberg was fouled with 18 seconds remaining and sank two free throws for a 83-82 lead.

It was like the scoreboard couldn't keep up. Gogebic had one last chance, but its final shot was blocked and UWS went home a winner.

"It was a tough loss, very tough," said Selin who lead all scorers with 22 points. "We had a good lead. We have a new coach and a new offense and we've come a long way. We try to outlet the ball and go as fast as we can. We push the ball and it's a lot of fun. We practice defense a lot. Defense is 100 percent effort, 100 percent all the time. You can always control your defense."

Despite the tough loss, Movrich said the game had its good points.

"I'm really pleased with the way we played," Movrich said. "We did everything we had to do to win, except for the last minutes. We stress defense and we created 37 turnovers. The girls have really bought into it. This is our stamp. This is what we want to be known for. I'd much rather play games like these than blowouts. You learn things. It's a disappointing loss, but we can only get better from here."

Atherton (18 points), Lindberg (15)), Sarah Lekson (13), Jayme Malnory (13) and Amber Zimpel (10) led a balanced UWS scoring attack.

Besides Selin's big night, Ofstad notched 19 points and Raisanen contributed 16.

It was GCC's first home game since December 11.

The Lady Samsons (15-7) will host UW-Marinette on Saturday at 1 p.m.

UWS JV - Amber Zimpel 10, Katie Boone 4, Jayme Malnory 13, Allyssa Lindberg 15, Abby Clemons 6, Anna Morgan 2, Sarah Lekson 13, Mikaela Hunter 4, Molly Atherton 18. FTs: 27-39. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Lindberg 2.

GCC - Samantha Robl 3, Bry Stengard 9, Sam Ofstad 19, Heather Selin 22, Brittany Raisanen 16, Adeline Kariainen 5, Brittni Kisul 8. FTs: 13-22. Fouls: 30. Fouled out: Robl, Kisul, Raisanen. 3-pointers: Selin 4, Raisanen 1, Ofstad 1, Robl 1.

Half: GCC 35-27.