STORY CITY — Trailing by six heading to the fourth quarter, the Prairie City-Monroe girls basketball team rallied past Roland-Story with a big final period Tuesday night.
The Mustangs got a career-high 14 points from junior Jayci Vos and junior Rachel Stafford hit 1-of-2 at the free throw line with 4.5 seconds to go to give her squad a 41-40 win over the Norse on the road in Heart of Iowa Conference play.
The Mustangs (9-6 overall, 8-3 in HOIC) led by four after one quarter and held a 21-19 lead at halftime. The Norse outscored PCM 16-8 in the third, but the Mustangs rallied with a 12-5 advantage in the fourth.
“I told the girls in the huddle going into the fourth quarter that we were down six but not out of the game,” PCM coach Jeff Lindsay said. “We didn’t need to get them all back at once. We needed to stay the course and do what we do.”
The game was tied at 40-all with 25 seconds to go when Lindsay called a timeout to set up a final offensive play.
The first option to Vos was unsuccessful, but Stafford caught the ball in the corner and was fouled after driving the ball hard to the bucket.
Stafford made the first free throw to give the Mustangs a lead, but Roland-Story (7-8, 6-5) called timeout with 3.3 seconds on the clock to set up a potential game-winner.
The Norse’s final attempt from 3-point range was contested well by Stafford and the ball came up short, barely touching iron on the way down.
“It doesn’t look like it in the box score, but our offense was much improved tonight,” Lindsay said. “It looked the best it has looked all year, even though the shots didn’t go in. The tempo was great.”
Junior Kayla Jennings had six points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in the win, while junior Lexi Timmins scored six points in her season debut.
Junior Katie Vande Wall had five points, six rebounds and two steals, and junior Kaylee Townsend had four points, five rebounds and two blocks.
PCM was 11-for-16 from the line, while Roland-Story attempted just eight shots from the charity stripe and converted five of them.
The Mustangs return to action at 6 p.m. Thursday when it hosts Fairfield in a non-conference game.