CANTON — Crest High’s Lady Lancers secured their first substate championship in 13 years Friday.
The win reaffirmed head coach Steve Zimmerman’s suspicions.
“I knew coming into the season we had a chance to be a really great team,” Zimmerman said. “I knew we had the pieces.”
Those pieces came together in nerve-wracking fashion Friday as Crest fended off Flinthills down the stretch to secure a Class 1A-I state tournament berth, 37-34.
“Oh, my goodness, it was just nuts,” Zimmerman said afterward.
Real nuts.
Crest led by five points with less than a minute left, but turned the ball over twice in a row, leading to a layup and putback basket from Flinthills to slice the Lady Lancer lead to 35-34 with 27 seconds left.
Two missed Crest free throws gave the ball back to Flinthills, but Crest’s defense met the challenge.
The Lady Lancers forced a double-dribble turnover on the Mustangs’ possession.
Flinthills fouled Karlee Boots, who hit 1 of 2 charities for a 36-34 lead.
Crest’s defense snuffed the next Flinthills possession by forcing an offensive foul with about 3 seconds left.
Aylee Beckmon hit a free throw for Crest, and missed the second, but the Mustangs were unable to do more than launch a desperation shot at the buzzer that was well off the mark.
“We were trying to milk the clock, but we had those turnovers,” Zimmerman said. “The girls stepped up.”
Crest received key contributions from up and down the lineup.
AFTER A SLOW start, Cursten Allen and Aylee Beckmon got things started late in the first quarter. Beckmon’s bucket kick-started a 15-5 Lady Lancer run to end the half, putting Crest up 22-13.
“Aylee did a great job of taking advantage of mismatches and driving to the hole,” Zimmerman said. “And we knew our bigs could get mismatches off the dribble.”
Jaycee Schmidt’s basket early in the third stretched the lead to double digits, 24-14, but Flinthills responded with a 9-2 run to close to within 26-23.
