Girls basketball: Ottawa pulls out overtime win at L-P

LA SALLE – Ottawa junior Skylar Dorsey was feeling the intensity of the moment in the fourth quarter against rival La Salle-Peru on Wednesday.

In the final five minutes of regulation, neither team led by more than two points.

“It was a little tense,” Dorsey said. “We were trying to stay confident and stay focused on the goal.”

In the end, the Pirates managed to pull it out.

Dorsey drained a late 3-pointer in regulation, and Ottawa scored the only field goal of overtime to edge the Cavaliers 40-38 in an Interstate 8 Conference game that originally was scheduled for Tuesday but was pushed back because of inclement weather.

“It feels pretty great,” Dorsey said about getting an OT win at L-P.

Dorsey knocked down her sixth 3-pointer of the game with 2:16 left in regulation to give the Pirates a 37-35 lead.

L-P tied it with a bucket from Jasmine Garman with 1:47 left off a long pass after a rebound.

L-P forced a turnover on Ottawa’s final possession of regulation but couldn’t get off a shot on the other end.

In overtime, Hailey Larsen scored on a putback with 1:45 left, and the Pirates hit 1 of 4 free throws, while the Cavs managed just one free throw in the extra session.

“Overtime was just a grind,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “Both teams were kind of tired. It almost felt like whoever got that first basket was going to be the game changer in overtime. We were fortunate we hung on. They got a good look at it in the end and we were just fortunate it didn’t go in.”

After rebounding a missed free throw, the Cavaliers called a timeout with 22.9 seconds left in overtime and again with 7.5 seconds left to set up a final play.

L-P senior Kaylee Abens received a pass and used a shot fake to get around a defender for an open 3-pointer, but her shot didn’t fall.

“We ran Kaylee off a double screen as the inbouder,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “We were going to run another double screen on the other side and let [Addie Duttlinger] go one on one if she had to go in the middle. Kaylee got it. She pump faked, and if you can take a wide-open 3 to win the game, you take it. I told her shoot it 1,000 times out of a 1,000. We got a good look for the win. It is what it is. It’s a make or miss thing.

“I’m just proud of how hard they’re playing. We played super hard. It was close the whole game. That’s the kind of games these always are.”

The first quarter was a duel between Duttlinger and Ottawa’s Ella Schmitz as each scored all her team’s points. L-P led 8-7 after the first eight minutes.

Duttlinger went out with two fouls with 6:45 left in the second quarter and the Pirates went on a run, building an 18-8 lead.

“We were just moving the ball a lot more,” said Dorsey, who sank three 3s during the run. “We were getting more paint touches so then we opened up more shots an opportunities.”

However, L-P responded as Addison Urbanski drove for a bucket with 4:07 left to start an 11-2 run to close the half, pulling the Cavs within 20-19 at the break.

L-P grabbed the momentum in the third, scoring on three straight possessions to go up 30-25 and leading Moore to call a timeout.

Out of the timeout, the Pirates ran a play for Dorsey, who drained a corner 3. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way.

“We got in the huddle and said, ‘We need to slow down a little bit. It’s a game of runs. There’s a lot of time left,’” Moore said. “We ran one of our favorite sets, and Sky was able to knock it down, like she’s been doing all season long for us. I think that gave us a little bounce back in our step to cut it to two, and we went from there.”

Dorsey scored a game-high 20 points for Ottawa (11-7, 3-2 I-8), while Schmitz finished with 11.

Duttlinger had 12 points to lead L-P (8-11, 0-5), while Abens and Urbanski contributed seven each.