Published: November 21, 2009 11:49 pm      

Rally falls short

Logan’s last-second shot just misses

Trailing by two points with the final seconds winding down against Kokomo, Logansport’s girls basketball team had the ball in the hands of the player it wanted to have it — Jasmine Penny.

The DePaul recruit made a nice drive to the basket, hesitated to avoid a blocked shot attempt and went up with a smooth shot in the paint. But it fell just short as the final buzzer sounded, and the Wildkats were able to hold off the Berries’ fourth-quarter rally to win 36-34.

“Shots just wouldn’t fall [Saturday night],” said Penny, who shot 6 of 18 from the field and 6 of 10 from the foul line en route to her game-high 18 points. “It was a good move I made, I just couldn’t get my shots to fall the whole night.”

“Hey, sometimes they go for you, sometimes they go against you,” Logan coach Jerry Hoover said. “Like with McCutcheon, we were fortunate to win that game. [Saturday night] it just went the other way.”

Logan (2-1, 0-1 North Central Conference) trailed 31-23 with just under five minutes to play before charging back with a 10-0 run to take its first lead since the first half. Penny scored six points during the run and Jennifer Tierney and LuQueena Roe added a field goal apiece.

Kokomo (3-0, 1-0) answered when forward Clarissa Woodard buried a three-pointer from the top of the key to take a 34-33 lead with 1:55 remaining. Penny tied it with 29 seconds to go with a free throw but missed the second after a Kokomo timeout. On the ensuing rebound following a scramble for the ball, Kokomo’s Ashley Lobeck received a pass and beat everyone down the court for a layup to give the Kats a 36-34 lead with 22 seconds remaining.

“When we were blocking out from Jasmine Penny’s shot I knew I was in there for a reason and I knew I had to make the play,” Lobeck said. “I saw we got the rebound and we did great handling it. Skylarr [Shurn] passed it to Kali [Ackison], Kali did really great holding it, and she got it out to me. And I just went up and expected the foul — still went up and thankfully made it.”

Penny then missed a runner in the lane with 15 seconds left, and Woodard later missed the front end of a one-and-one with 7.9 seconds remaining. Penny got the rebound and drove the length of the court, but her final shot that would have forced overtime was just off the mark.

“I’m excited,” Kokomo coach Jason Snyder said. “It’s a great conference win. Everybody’s talking about Logansport being up at the top for our conference and it’s really nice to be able to come in here and get a win.”

The Berries ran a box-and-one on Shurn, with Gabby McIntire blanketing her most of the game. Shurn still managed to lead the Wildkats with 11 points. Woodard added eight. Kelly Hopkins pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.

Penny pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Tierney added six points and eight boards.

“I just told the girls that as far as I’m concerned, they played the way that I want them to play, they played what we call Logansport Berry basketball,” Hoover said. “We played good defense for the most part.”

Kokomo outscored Logan 11-6 in the third quarter to take a 29-23 lead into the final stanza.

The first half was back and forth as the Wildkats were able to take an 18-16 lead into the break despite battling early foul trouble to Shurn and Hopkins. Shurn got open against the box-and-one and drilled a trey with five second remaining in the first half to give the Kats the lead.

Logan won the JV game 49-47 on a last-second game-winner by Brooke Griffith. Rachel Jennings led the Berries with 27 points.

The Berries get a nice break for the week of Thanksgiving and don’t return to action until Dec. 2 in Cass County Tournament play.