Jan 10, 2015 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – With 1.4 seconds left in regulation and the score tied in a game against the undefeated and No. 16-ranked Indiana women’s basketball team, California University’s sharp-shooting senior guard Emma Mahady was bent over and vomiting into a courtside trash can.

Five minutes later, Mahady could say she never felt better.

Mahady scored a career-high 26 points, including the 1,000th of her career and a tiebreaking three-pointer from the left wing with 1:14 remaining in overtime, as No. 25-ranked California upset IUP, 73-68, Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.

The win moves Cal (10-1, 13-2) a half-game ahead of IUP (9-1, 13-1) in the PSAC’s West Division and gives the Vulcans a better feeling about themselves than they had last Sunday, when they suffered a double-digit loss at Bloomsburg. On this day, nobody was feeling better than Mahady, though she had to leave the game briefly at the end of regulation after being called for a foul when she ran through a screen 30 feet from the basket and then became ill.

Point guard Miki Glenn gave Cal a 60-59 lead with four seconds left by making the back end of a two-shot foul. IUP inbounded the ball and quickly pushed it up the sideline, where Mahady was hit with a foul for running over IUP’s Ashley Stoner, who set a screen.

“That was a set play, where we try to get a shot off the screen or a foul. We practice that,” explained IUP coach Tom McConnell.

The foul, which was a violent collision, sent Stoner to the free-throw line with a chance to win the game for the Crimson Hawks while Mahady went to the trash can near the IUP bench.

“It felt like I ran into a brick wall,” Mahady explained. “As a senior, I knew that if the game went to overtime, then I had to get back in the game.”

With Cal leading 60-59 and 1.4 seconds left, Stoner, who hit her head on the court after being ran over by Mahady, made the first free throw to tie the score but the second attempt was short.

The teams traded baskets in overtime until Mahady came off a screen on the left wing and drilled a three-pointer that gave the Vulcans a 69-66 lead.

“That play is part of our secondary offense,” explained Mahady, a native of Albury, Australia. “We don’t run that very often. I came off a screen and felt separation between me and the defender, so I left it fly.”

Glenn, who scored 19 points, made four free throws in the final 41 seconds to secure the win. Until then, free throws had been an adventure for Cal as the Vulcans finished the game 16 for 26.

“The three-pointer was huge,” Cal coach Jess Strom said. “For Emma to have the confidence to take that shot and to make it, it shows her will and heart. A few minutes earlier, she was fighting with our trainers to go back in the game.”

The Vulcans won despite making just one of their first 13 shots, shooting only 28 percent in the first half and falling behind 16-2.

“That’s not how you draw it up,” Strom said. “But we’ve done that the last three games. I don’t get worried because I know our kids can fight back.”

Cal battled back to within 31-25 at halftime and used a sticky 2-2-1 zone press in the second half that frustrated IUP. The Crimson Hawks committed 17 turnovers after halftime and seemed to lose their offensive rhythm.

“The press slowed their offense. They had to run a lot of sets, but they started them with 18 or 19 seconds left on the shot clock. We even got a 10-second call with the press,” Strom said.

Behind Glenn’s slashing drives to the basket and some offensive contributions from reserves CeCe Dixon and Sierra Barrett, Cal went on a 12-0 run over a six-minute stretch to forge a 45-37 lead. But Cal went cold again from the field late in regulation and IUP used a 12-2 surge take a 59-57 lead into the final minute of regulation.

Mahady, however, made a jumper from the lane to tie it at 59-59, and after an IUP missed shot Glenn’s free throw gave the Vulcans a 60-59 lead.

Glenn scored 19 points and Kaitlynn Fratz had 17 for Cal, which had 18 offensive rebounds. Mahady set her career high for points for the second consecutive game after being held scoreless against Bloomsburg.

Point guard Marita Mathe led IUP with 21 points before fouling out. Lindsay Stamp, the leading scorer in the PSAC, had 19 points but they came on 8-for-20 shooting. Stoner scored 15 points.

“We turned it over 26 times and gave up 18 offensive rebounds. Those are the telling statistics,” McConnell said. “We gave Cal a lot of extra opportunities. They did a good job of trapping us and getting us out of our rhythm on offense.”