NEWTON, Kan.—
For Newton fans, it wasn’t the prettiest finish to a basketball game. With a 3-point lead and about five and a half minutes left, Olathe Northwest head coach Joel Branstrom elected to hold the ball and run out the clock on the Lady Ravens’ 46-42 win over the Lady Railers to take the Newton Invitational championship.But don’t ask Branstrom to apologize for the tactic.
“I’m going to live and die by that decision and fortunately for me it worked out just fine,” said Branstrom. “And it catered to what’s going on in the rules. You want to play to win. That was a little bit playing not to lose, but within the confines of how things were going and the momentum swing, I felt that was the right choice.”
The Lady Railers trailed 30-23 at the half, but came out of the locker on fire, willing themselves back into the ball game. The momentum of the third quarter carried into the fourth where Newton fought back to take a 1-point lead.
With the Lady Railers tasting the upset of the No. 5 team in 6A, Northwest took the air out of the ball.
“I think it’s a credit to what we were doing,” said Newton head coach Randy Jordan. “I felt like it gave us a chance to rest. I had made up my mind, at the three minute mark we were going to come out and guard. I felt like it was to our advantage to shorten the game, because it gave them less possessions, which was good for us. I wish there was a shot clock, but…I think (Branstrom) felt like they weren’t getting that great of looks off of our defense.”
After the stall took a ton of time off the clock, Newton’s Maddie Pendry made things interesting. Trailing by 5 points with under a minute left, Pendry put up a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key that scorched the net to cut the lead to 2.
“I was just hoping that I could get that shot off and it went in so that’s all that matters,” said Pendry. “I kind of like to shoot out pretty far…so that was like my perfect shot.”
The Lady Ravens just needed to protect the ball on the inbounds play, but a double team stripped the ball and Abbie Lehman got her hands on the loose ball that went back to Newton on the possession arrow.
Pendry got her hands on the ball and put up another 3 from the same spot with about five seconds left. This one however drew the top of the front iron and left Newton a centimeter short of the win.
“I kind of thought it was in, but it was a little short,” said Pendry.
While the Lady Railers came up a little short in the Newton tournament, the team feels good about the tough contests in the first half of the season, and the brutal slate of league games to follow in the second half.
“We’ve been picking up our intensity a lot in practice and I think we are turning over a new leaf,” said Pendry. “And we are going to come after all the teams that beat us in league.”
