Girls' hoops: Cardinals/Pirates go overtime again

By Jason Olson
SportsPrepZone Editor

The beauty of playing in a larger conference is that teams face each other twice a season, once at home and away.

Coon Rapids faced Park Center in a girls' basketball rematch of a mid-December nail bitter that needed two overtimes to decide a win. Wednesday's game didn't disappoint basketball fans as the two teams in toward the bottom of the Northwest Suburban Conference took to the Coon Rapids court.

The Cardinals (3-14) were looking to sweep the season series against Northwest Suburban Conference foe, Park Center (5-13), after needing double overtime for a 66-59 win over the Pirates Dec. 15.

Sure enough, Tuesday's game also needed extra time to decide a winner, but it was the visitors who came out ahead in a 48-47 decision.

Park Center led 26-22 at half time and led by as many as nine points in the second half as Coon Rapids turned the ball over in the paint or took some highly-contested and low-percentage shots.

"We're still a young team and we'll keep growing," said Cardinals coach JT Taylor after the one-point loss. "Right now we're just looking for some more consistency. We've been moving the ball well, but we need our kids to finish."

Coon Rapids juniors Shelby Zimmel and Caitylnn Happke led the way with 16 and 15 points, respectively. The top Pirate scorers also scored 16 and 15 points, Brehana Hooker and Megan VanHulzen led the visitors.

Zimmel, a guard, used her speed to score in transition and in the half court offense she drove the baseline to lay the ball off the glass and in. Happke gave the Cardinals an inside presence with her rebounding on both ends and scoring the tough points in the lane.

The Pirates took a 33-24 lead early in the second half before Coon Rapids responded with patience on defense and scoring quickness on offense to cut the lead to 33-32 with 8:41 left in the game.

Coon Rapids matched Park Center basket for basket before Happke took an in-bounds pass under the basket and layed it in for two points, 41-41 with 1:07 left. Park called a time out with 13 seconds left and the ball in Coon Rapids ' half after they couldn't break the tight Cardinals defense. The possession was capped off by Happke swatting down a lay-up attempt only to have the ball bounce off a Pirates player before Zimmel was fouled trying to collect the loose ball.

The foul sent Zimmel to the line to shoot one free throw.

After Park Center froze her on the line with a time out, Zimmel's shot bounced off the front of the rim before Park gathered the rebound and tried a last-second shot from the opposite end of the court.

Happke made the opening basket of overtime and Coon Rapids built a 45-41 lead before Park's Hooker burried a big three-pointer to bring the visitors back 45-44. Zimmel converted another baseline lay-up to take a 47-44 lead.

Park Center held the ball with 30 seconds remaining as Coon Rapids ' defense denied any easy looks at the basket from the outside. As the Cardinals switched from man to zone defense, Park's guard found senior Kelsey Petersen slashing down the lane. As she caught the pass a couple feet from the basket, she laid the ball off the glass and through the hoop for the game winning basket.

With one second left, Coon Rapids ' Libby Storrick put up a half court shot that fell short as the final buzzer sounded.

Jason Olson is at jason.olson@ecm-inc.com.