↓ DOWN TO THE WIRE

By: Matthew A. Anderson

Bullock Creek edged Conference Rival Freeland 55-53 in a thriller that came down to the final seconds. Freeland rallied from a 4th quarter double digit deficit but came up just short.

Like most games at any level of basketball, when you have two teams of this caliber, they are going to make their runs throughout the game. It's the other team's job to bend but not break, so when they go on the counter-attack, they are within striking distance. Both Freeland and Bullock Creek went through hot and cold spells on Friday night, mainly because of two great defensive teams. Freeland started off hot, with a 9-2 run to open the game, capped off by a Jenni Jankoska 3 point play with 3:33 left in the 1st quarter. Then it was the Lancers' turn, as they held the Falcons scoreless throughout the remainder of the quarter and finished the 1st on a 8-0 run. Chelsea Chritz capped off the run with a 3 ball, with just 3 seconds to go in the quarter. That was preceded by a 3 pointer from Maria Violette. After 1, it was the Lancers up by 1, 10-9.

Bullock Creek continued their momentum by stretching the lead to 16-11 early in the 2nd quarter on 3 straight baskets from Chritz. The pendulum then swung towards Freeland, as they countered with 6 unanswered, capped off by a three ball from Tori Jankoska with 4:12 remaining in the half. That was the first of 4 consecutive baskets for Tori, which saw the Falcons lead grow to 4 points late in the first half, 23-19 before the Creek made their final push. The Lancers finished the quarter on a 8-1 run to lead by 3, 27-24 at the break. The first half battle was highlighted by the play of the Jankoskas for Freeland and Violette and Chritz for Bullock Creek. The 2nd half would be more of the same with a lot of help from the supporting cast.

After two baskets by Chritz and 3 minutes into the 3rd Quarter, the Lancers were up 31-26 before Freeland answered inside with a bucket from Jenni Jankoska. It would be an uphill climb for most of the half for Freeland however as it seemed every time they would draw close, Bullock Creek would pull away. With 2:50 remaining in the quarter, the lead was pushed to 10, 39-29. With 41 seconds to go, Nicole Peterson nailed a three pointer to push the lead to 11, 45-34. Freeland sank two free throws to finish the quarter and trim the lead to 9 after 3.

Freeland chipped away at the lead in the fourth but after 4 minutes and a 3 point play from Chritz, they found themselves back down by 10, 54-44. With so much spent energy on trying to catch up, it looked like the lead was too much, even for this Falcon team that never gave up. Turns out, they had one last run in them and they took the Creek to the brink. Over the final 4 minutes of the 4th quarter, the Falcons only gave up 1 point and that was with just over 2 seconds to play. Freeland, with tough defense and a few breaks from Bullock Creek missing the front end of a few 1 and 1s, cut to within 2 points and a chance to tie it with 5.1 seconds to play. Torri Jankoska was fouled on her way to the hoop and got two shots. She sank the first calmly and then a timeout. The 2nd shot was a heart-breaker. It went up, went about halfway down and then popped out. After that they had to foul and that's when Peterson hit 1 out of two free throws to make the score final at 55-53 but not before Torri got one last heave from beyond half court to try and win it. It went just wide and the Lancers pulled off a thrilling win to put themselves in the Tri-Valley Central lead, early in conference play. It was the first loss of the year for Freeland, with both teams coming in highly regarded and very talented. The hype did not disappoint.

After Torri Jankoska missed the 2nd free throw, you could see the emotion and frustration but it was for all of the right reasons, the young star in the making didn't want to lose and she almost willed her team to a win along with Jenni's play down low. She may have just missed the free throw to tie it but without her play, they wouldn't have even got to that point. She has a long season left to get over the miss and a few years after that to make it a distant memory. Torri finished with 17, Jenni with 18 points for Freeland.

Chelsea Chritz led all scorers with 21 for the Creek, Maria Violette had 13. Violette along with Nicole Peterson seemed to hit the big shots at the right time and were integral in the team's ball movement. Chritz simply took over the game at times and scored in bunches.

The two will meet again on February 12th in Freeland for what might very well decide the TVC-Central conference title.