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For awhile, this game had "blowout" written all over it.
Friday night, the Mineral Point girls basketball team was doing everything right and it looked as if it would cruise to an easy SWAL win.
But nothing comes easy when your opposing team has a standout player, and that was the case as Fennimore rallied to nearly claim the victory before falling 55-52 in the Pointer gym.
Alexi Needham, who went over the 1000 point mark for her career earlier this year, led the comeback charge, scoring 14 of her game-high 27 points in the third quarter.
It was the Pointer defense, however, that helped preserve the win, coming up with big steals down the stretch and sealing the deal at the free throw line, going six of nine from the charity stripe in the final 2:20.
Mineral Point couldn't have asked for a better start, bolting out to an 8-0 lead that saw baskets from Jessica Schultz, Clara Chambers, and Paula Pittz. Needham scored the only Golden Eagle points in the first quarter as the score read 14-6 in favor of the home team.
A 9-0 burst during the middle of the second quarter put the Pointers up 24-9 as Sydney Staver scored five points. The Eagles outscored Mineral Point 9-4 over the final 3:23 to crawl within 28-18 at the break.
The teams traded baskets to start the third before Fennimore went on a 10-1 run to cut the deficit to just four points. A huge three from Carlie Qualley with 15 seconds left stopped the bleeding and swung momentum back on the Pointer side at 41-34 entering the fourth.
Cheyanne Jo Udelhoven got the hot hand to start the final eight minutes, getting her team within three at 41-38. It was touch and go from there as the teams traded baskets. Udelhoven tallied three triples in the final eight minutes, her last pulling the Eagles as close as 52-50 with 40 seconds remaining. Chambers hit both bonus shots with 30 seconds to go and the Pointers got a big steal with 17 seconds left. This time Chambers missed the front end of the one and one bonus, giving life back to the Eagles. Needham was fouled on a three point attempt with 10 seconds remaining, and made two out of three shots as the score read 54-52. An off the ball foul was called on Fennimore before the clock started and Chambers hit her second foul shot to give her team a three point advantage. Needham was the one to take the final shot for the tie, and tried again to draw contact on the attempt, but to no avail.
The Pointers were paced by Chambers with 14 and Schultz with 10.
Needham led all scorers with her 27 point performance. Her teammate Udelhoven added 16.
"Give Fennimore credit," said Pointer coach Mitch Wainwright. "They found a way to get the ball to Needham, and I thought we made them make tough passes and take tough shots, but they found a way."
"Overall, I felt we did what we wanted tonight. We knew where Needham was and, when you look at the stat line and see she scored 27 points, you might think we didn't do a good job on her, but I think we did. Natalie Chubb and Destinee Kruser did a nice job on her defensively."
"Clara really played heads up basketball at the end for us. She is a very smart player."
"Syd really went to the basket and made good decisions with the basketball tonight."
"We played very well in the first half, only committing three turnovers. I thought we also played well in the fourth quarter and we got the defensive stops when we needed to down the stretch," concluded the coach.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
F: 6-12-16-18--52
MP: 14-14-13-14--55
BOX SCORE
FENNIMORE (fg-ft-tp) 52: Needham 10-7/11-27, Whitish 0-1/2-1, Hood 1-0-2, C. Udelhoven 6-1/3-16, Kohout 2-0/2-4, Halverson 1-0-2. Totals: 17-9/17-52. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: C. Udelhoven. Three pointers: C. Udelhoven 1.
MINERAL POINT 55: Staver 3-2/4-8, Pittz 3-0-6, Chambers 5-4/7-14, Chubb 1-0-2, Wainwright 3-2/2-8, Qualley 1-1/2-4, Kruser 1-1/2-3, Schultz 5-0-10. Totals: 22-10/17-55. Fouls: 19. Three pointers: Qualley 1.