Wyatt shoots Lady Hubs basketball team over Stillman Valley

Senior forward sinks two free throws with 0.3 seconds left to give Rochelle 53-52 win

Russell Hodges
Posted 1/31/18

Jacie Wyatt approached the free-throw line with an opportunity to win the game for the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team on Thursday. The senior forward calmly knocked down two charity shots with 0.3 seconds remaining against Stillman Valley, and Rochelle defeated the Cardinals by a final score of 53-52 to improve to 10-15 on the season.

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Wyatt shoots Lady Hubs basketball team over Stillman Valley

Senior forward sinks two free throws with 0.3 seconds left to give Rochelle 53-52 win

Posted

ROCHELLE — Jacie Wyatt approached the free-throw line with an opportunity to win the game for the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team on Thursday. The senior forward calmly knocked down two charity shots with 0.3 seconds remaining against Stillman Valley, and Rochelle defeated the Cardinals by a final score of 53-52 to improve to 10-15 on the season.

“I was just trying not to shake and be nervous,” said Wyatt, who scored 12 points in the victory. “I just tried to shoot the ball like I do in practice and I really wanted to do it for my team because we worked really hard in that game… It feels really good to finally pull through and win. This was a full team win and we’re going to carry this energy into the next game.”

The Lady Hubs trailed 52-51 with 4.2 seconds remaining in the game when Rochelle head coach Tony Rowan called a timeout and drew up one final play for his team. Junior Abby Lundquist inbounded the ball to Wyatt, who faked the hand-off to Lundquist before driving to the basket with her left hand and drawing a foul on Stillman Valley. Wyatt then gave Rochelle the lead, and the Cardinals had nearly no time left for a full-court heave that fell short.

“We’re going to thank Ottawa for that last play,” Rowan said. “It was a fake hand-off play and we knew they would be going toward Abby a little bit, and that allowed Jacie to take the ball to the basket and get fouled. I’m very excited that she was able to hit those free throws… The kids on the bench stayed positive and we really pulled together in the second half.”

Four of Rochelle’s last five games entering Thursday had been decided by five points or less, with the Lady Hubs going 0-4 in those games. But the purple and white weren’t going to let another tight game slip away, and after trailing Stillman Valley 24-17 at halftime, the girls fought back and ended up on top.

“These next few games will be against teams in our regional,” Rowan said. “Anything we can do to build confidence will be good for us going forward.”

Lundquist scored 13 points to lead all Rochelle players. Junior Mya Latta added a season-high 10 points while junior Morgan Baker totaled nine points.