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After pretty much leading for all of three quarters, the Iowa-Grant girls basketball team found themselves fighting back in the fourth quarter only to have a last second shot not hit in a 36-35 loss to visiting Riverdale Thursday night.
The Panthers jumped to an 11-4 lead in the first quarter and even though only scoring three points in period two led 14-12 at the intermission.
They still led 22-21 after three with the Lady Chieftains taking a short lived one possession lead midway in that frame.
Then a pair of Riverdale 6 footers - senior Megan Kleist and sophomore Autumn Noble - and junior Amanda Meister took over scoring five, four and four points to go with sophomore Macey Klebesadel's two pointer for 15 points in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers hit 13 - five by both senior Taylor Jackson and junior Haley Yelinek, a bucket by sophomore Emma Liddicoat and a free throw by senior Kylie Moneypenny. That total came up one short of a tie, two short of a win.
Jackson came up with a steal, a lay up and free throw to cut the margin to one.
They had the ball with 13 second left and as they were setting up a shot, a Lady Chieftain kicked the ball out of bounds on the side with five ticks left on the clock. Liddicoat got the inbounds pass and drive to the side of the bucket where her off balance eight footer had the distance exactly, but not the accuracy as it fell in front of the basket.
Riverdale's Noble scored in every quarter and led all scorers on the night at 14 while Kleist hit 10, all in the second half.
The Panthers were led by Jackson with nine points while Money-penny, Liddicoat and Yelinek each had eight.
"Riverdale is just so big," said Iowa-Grant coach Craig Jenkins. "Our objective was to shut down Kleist, one of their best perimeter shooters and we did the first half."
"I felt we rebounded well tonight against a bigger, very physical team," he added.
"With 13 seconds left we had the opportnity to get two trys at a basket. We had a good look at an 8 footer, but their guards are very goog and made it tough on us," Jenkins said.
"This game is a good start to the SWAL for us," he pointed out. "Riverdale is picked to be near the top. Our goal is to double our conference wins this season - that would give us eight."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
RD 4 8 9 15-36
IG 11 3 8 13-35
BOX SCORE
RIVERDALE 36 (fg, ft, tp) Walstead 0-0-0, Meister 4-0/2-8, Hanke 0-0-0, Coney 0-0-0, Klebesadel 1-0-2, Drone 1-0-2, Noble 6-2/2-14, Kleist 4-0-10, Frazier 0-0-0. Totals 16-2/4-36. F-14. 3-pointers: Kleist 2.
IOWA-GRANT 35: Money-penny 2-4/6-8, Wernimont 0-0-0, Grimm 1-0-2, Roth 0-0-0, Liddicoat 4-0-8, Yelinek 3-0-8, Jackson 3-3/3-9, Stanton 0-0-0. Totals 13-7/9-35. F-7. 3 pointers: Jackson 2.