Shot at buzzer sends QV past McGuffey
CLAYSVILLE – After breezing through the first three games of the regular season, the McGuffey Highlanders girls basketball team got its first conference test of the season Thursday.
And, oh, what a test.
The McGuffey offense struggled most of the night, thanks to an aggressive Quaker Valley defense. That left the door open for sophomore Alana Davidson to knock down a jumper at the buzzer to give Quaker Valley a 54-52 victory in a Section 5-AAA game.
“This is a big win,” said Quaker Valley head coach Jill Brumbaugh. “That is a very good McGuffey team. They have the best three guards in the conference and we wanted to make it tough on them. The plan was to try and limit them to one shot and concentrate on defense and rebounding. I thought we executed that plan pretty well.”
No team led by more than five points at any time in a game that had nine ties and 13 lead changes.
The Highlanders trailed 51-47 with just over a minute left, but came back to tie it. Katie Demi knocked down a three-point shot to pull the Highlanders within 51-50 with 47 seconds remaining. Karen Pugh made one of two free throws to give QV (1-0, 3-1) a 52-50 lead. Things looked really bleak for McGuffey (0-1, 3-1) after Demi was called for traveling with 30 seconds remaining.
But Rachel Czulewicz stole the inbounds pass and fed it to Sammie Weiss, who made a layup with 26.3 seconds left to knot the game, 52-52.
Brumbaugh elected not to call a timeout and the Quakers held the ball for the last shot. It didn’t look like QV was going to be able to get a shot off before time expired, but Davidson got the ball, spun around, and knocked the jumper down to win the game.
“I’m so excited,” said Davidson, who came off the bench to score 11 points. “I have been practicing shots from the elbow and we were playing for the last shot. I’m just happy I made it.”
The Quakers did an outstanding job of denying Weiss, McGuffey’s leading scorer, the ball for most of the game. Weiss made only two field goals and scored only six points in the first half. The rest of the Highlanders didn’t fare much better.
McGuffey, which came into the game averaging 66.3 points per game, needed a Czulewicz three-pointer late in the second quarter to take a 24-22 lead into the half.
McGuffey struggled to get Weiss high percentage looks, but Czulewicz and Carae Wagner helped keep the Highlanders in the game, with each scoring eight first-half points.
The Highlanders couldn’t get the offense going because they were outhustled and outrebounded at both ends of the floor.
“That’s as bad as we may have ever played,” said McGuffey head coach Amanda Burchett. “I give them credit, but I would say 90 percent of it was on us. We stood around and watched. They beat us to loose balls and rebounds. You aren’t going to win many games when you are standing around watching and not hustling.”
The game was tied, 34-34 after three quarters when Weiss finally found more room to shoot, scoring 10 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Quakers had to switch to a zone.
Each time Weiss tried to bring McGuffey back, the Quakers had an answer, mostly from Aria Alston-Smith, who scored seven of her team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“We got in some foul trouble and had to switch to a zone in the fourth quarter,” said Brumbaugh. “That allowed Weiss to get some more space, but we were able to make big plays down the stretch.”
Another thing that cost the Highlanders was free-throw shooting as McGuffey made only 8 of 15 attempts. QV also struggled from the line until making 7 of 8 in the fourth quarter.
“We have been practicing our free throws,” said Burchett. “We shot them very good for three games. I think we only missed five coming into tonight. I think once we got down we didn’t focus as much.”
In addition to Weiss, Czulewicz scored in double figures for the Highlanders. The senior finished with 14 points, knocking down four three-point shots.