Raiders survive Defenders’ rally, win 53-49
Comments (...)BAXTER — It ended up a lot more drama-filled than the Raiders would have preferred, but their Senior Night was a sweet one nonetheless.
The Collins-Maxwell-Baxter girls basketball team survived blowing a 17-point late third-quarter lead and pulled out a 53-49 win over Grandview Park Baptist to give its four seniors one last good memory on their home floor.
“It feels great. It means a lot,” said CMB senior Emmeline Huffaker, who had seven points. “I love playing with our team and it’s going to be hard not coming back next year.”
What looked to be a relatively simple and convincing win through three quarters nearly turned into disaster in the fourth. The Raiders (8-12, 6-11 Heart of Iowa Conference) led 38-21 with 2 minutes left in the third before the Defenders (3-18, 1-17) roared back with a 19-4 run to ultimately take a one-point lead at 47-46 with 2:12 left in the game.
But CMB responded by ending the game on a 7-2 run, with its final five points coming from junior Shelby Berg to give the Raiders the four-point victory.
“We talked about how there’s a lot of different reasons to win this game,” CMB coach Eric Padget said. “The girls just needed to win it for themselves. Win it for the seniors — yes. Win it for the crowd, win it for me, whatever. But they needed to win it for themselves.”
GPB got out to an early 7-2 lead before the Raiders found their footing and went on an 11-0 run to take control at 13-7. They kept it going in through the second quarter, extending the run to 20-2 and held a 22-9 lead before Defenders’ senior Elizabeth Humburg swished home an NBA-range desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a 10-point difference at halftime at 22-12.
The Raiders went on a 14-5 run in the third — of which sophomore Abbie Haupert scored eight points — to take their biggest lead of the game at 38-21, and that’s when GPB started its comeback. A quick 6-0 run brought it within 11, and then Humburg hit another buzzer beating 3-pointer to end the quarter with CMB ahead 42-30.
The Defenders kept gaining in the fourth, where three 3-pointers from junior Hannah Cook pulled the within just one point at 46-45 with 3 minutes left. Freshman Kaylee Whittington gave them the lead with a put-back bucket with 2:12 left, and suddenly the Raiders found themselves trailing after being in firm control for most the game.
“We built a lead, and it’s a good thing we had because Grandview came storming back,” Padget said. “I didn’t feel it slipping away, even though we lost the lead there for a bit. I still felt like we were going to win the game. It was just a matter of taking one more time out, calming them down and then doing what we had been doing.”
“I was a little panicked, but I knew we could pull through for the win,” Huffaker added.
Huffaker’s instincts were right, as Haupert scored to regain the lead for CMB 25 seconds later, and then Berg hit a jumper and added two free throws to put the Raiders ahead 52-47 with 35 seconds left. GPB’s only score in the final 2:12 came with 22 seconds left, and Berg added one more free throw with 15 seconds left to seal CMB’s win.
Berg finished with 13 points, while Haupert led the team with 14.
“’Bergy’ really stepped up and did great tonight,” Huffaker said. “She showed that she can do pretty much anything with the support of her team behind her.”
After a 2-7 start to the season, CMB has won six of its past 11 games, and looks to end the regular season winning 3-of-4 when it plays at Colfax-Mingo on Friday.
CMB 53,
Grandview Park Baptist 49
Score by quarter
GPB - 7 5 18 19 — 49
CMB - 0 13 20 11 — 53
CMB scoring — Abbie Haupert 14, Shelby Berg 13, Alex Broderick 8, Emmeline Huffaker 7, Ashley Girard 4, Jenna Balwin 3, Sarah Galbraith 2.
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