Devil of a victory (02/10/07

GAS CITY - Tipton's senior star did just about everything she could to try to carry her team to victory. But in the end, it was a Jay County senior who lifted her team to the title game.

Sara Garringer's shot with 16 seconds left Friday gave her Patriots a 59-58 victory over the Blue Devils in the semifinal round of the Class 3A girls basketball sectional at Mississinewa.

The final two points from Garringer along with a big defensive stop on the final Tipton possession negated a 25-point game from Blue Devil senior Monica Planalp.

"Tipton in my opinion was the hottest team coming into the tournament," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team will try for its fourth sectional title in five years tonight. "They've just been on a roll and really felt good about themselves. We knew we were coming in and playing a hot team tonight."

Saturday night's game will present a familiar opponent to Jay County as it will meet the Elwood Panthers in the championship game for the third straight year and the sixth time in the last three seasons overall. Elwood, which the Patriots beat 43-36 during the regular season, clobbered the host Indians 60-30 in Friday's second semifinal game to earn its spot in the finals

Jay County (13-8) built an 11-point third-quarter lead Friday, but the hot hand of Planalp brought the Blue Devils back and set up a roller-coaster of a fourth quarter.

The lead changed hands five times in the final 3:13 of the game, including a pair of Planalp free throws with 32 seconds left to give Tipton a 58-57 advantage. But the Patriots had the answer, as Lindsey Wellman got the ball in the paint and found Garringer open on the right wing.

The senior guard, who missed seven games this year because of a knee injury, buried a shot from just inside the 3-point line to put Jay County ahead 59-58 as Tipton called timeout with 14.1 seconds to go. The assist was the third of the closing minutes for Wellman, who passed to senior Nicole Pfeifer on the previous Patriot possession, and sixth of the game.

"Nicole had a really good game and she was on a mission tonight," said Comer of the senior, who along with Garringer finished with 12 points. "The last two plays were for Lindsey to get the ball and get it to Nicole. ... She made a really nice pass, and then the last play ... she recognized that (Nicole) wasn't there and kicked it out and got Sara a really nice look. We made some really good decisions there at the end."

Tipton wanted to get Planalp the final shot, but she was cut off as she drove in from the right side. She passed the ball away and never got it back as fellow senior Angie Leininger launched a shot from just beyond the free-throw line. Her try bounced off the rim to the right side, and Pfeifer tipped it down the court as time expired.

"We wanted to get the ball out of (Planalp's) hands," said Comer. "We picked her up at half-court and we had someone else waiting on her because we knew she'd probably beat us off the dribble .. and then forced her to pass it and hoped she wouldn't get it back."

Wellman led the Patriots in every category as she finished with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and game highs of nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks. Whitney Homan scored eight points, Pfeifer and Garringer each grabbed four rebounds and Dana Horn totaled four assists.

Jay County also got some key minutes off the bench from junior Amber Edmundson, who played almost exclusively on the junior varsity team this year, and freshman Pazia Speed.

Edmudson made both of her field goal attempts for four points and had two rebounds and an assist. Speed had five points, including a fourth-quarter 3-pointer, three rebounds, one assist and one block.

"I told the girls after the game, 'Everybody be ready tomorrow night,'" said Comer. "'Because you don't know who is going to get called on, and if you get called on, be ready. Because you might not have played much tonight, you might not have played at all tonight, but you could be the hero tomorrow.' That's just the way we are."

Planalp (10-of-14 free throws, four assists and three rebounds) was lights out for Tipton, especially after her team fell behind 44-33 in the third quarter. She went on a personal 8-0 run to get her team back in the game, and the Blue Devils reclaimed the lead going into the fourth quarter thanks to 3-pointers from Leininger and Megan Harper.

A pull-up triple by Planalp - she made all of her three 3-point attempts - to open the fourth quarter pushed Tipton to a 50-46 advantage. But Wellman tied the game at 51 on a put-back at the four-minute mark, then assisted on a Nicole Pfeifer hoop to start the back-and-forth final minutes.[[In-content Ad]]