BANGOR, Maine – For the John Bapst girls’ varsity basketball team, the story all year has been Hillary Laferriere and Lauren Nichols, but in Saturday’s game against Presque Isle the hero turned out to be junior guard Eve Jordan.
Jordan drained two three-pointers within 30 seconds in the final two minutes to tie the game at 31 and send it into overtime, then added a 10-foot jumper in the paint and in traffic at the buzzer to give the no. 2 ranked Lady Crusaders a 40-38 victory.
Jordan’s game-winner came just seconds after Presque Isle’s Sarah Porter hit a three-pointer to retie the game and send it toward an apparent second overtime.
The loss stunned the Lady Wildcats, who, despite coming in as the underdog at no. 7, led the entire way and by as much as eight points until the tying three with 1:46 remaining in regulation.
The Lady Wildcats looked to hold Laferriere quiet for the afternoon and went with a zone defense to enable the double team in the middle, and the strategy appeared to work when senior center Angela Norsworthy got her feet set and drew a foul on defense with 3:11 left in the fourth. The foul sent John Bapst’s best player to the bench for the remainder of the game, but her teammates proved up to the task.
Christina Andrle opened the overtime period with a steal on an inbounds pass and got it to Nichols for the bucket and foul. Jordan came back after a tie ball was called a foul and hit one end of the one-and-one bonus and both sides of a shooting foul to give John Bapst a 37-33 lead.
Norsworthy brought Presque Isle within one possession as she drove the baseline in traffic and made the short jumper to make it 38-35 with 20.7 seconds remaining. Norsworthy picked up the foul on the inbounds pass to Erin McGuan and Porter grabbed the rebound on the back end of two missed foul shots. Porter drove the length of the court and hit the tying three with eight seconds left but Jordan’s jumper advanced the Lady Crusaders into the semifinal round.
Norsworthy and Porter led Presque Isle with 11 points each and Amy Michaud added nine including five in the second quarter off back-to-back steals and finishes that helped the Lady Wildcats out to a four-point halftime lead.
Presque Isle distributed the defensive work evenly with Porter leading the way with six rebounds and a steal and Norsworthy picking up five rebounds. Michaud added four rebounds and three steals. The Lady Wildcats cap their season at 12-8.
Leading John Bapst was Nichols with 16 points and Jordan with 14. Laferriere was held to six. Nichols also led the team in rebounding with eight.
