Beaver eliminated in defensive battle that goes to overtime
Beaver met its mirror image Saturday in a Villa Maria team that was undefeated and boasted one of the stingiest defenses in the state.
Beaver’s mirror image shattered.
Shattered the Bobcats’ dream season, that is.
Villa Maria scored the only point of overtime on a free throw with 14 seconds left and Beaver was whistled for an offensive foul after a would-be winning basket, enabling the District 10 power Victors to escape Beaver
County with a 29-28 victory in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal.
In a physical game that more resembled a demolition derby than a NASCAR race, Villa Maria (19-0) was able to tag Beaver (20-1) with its first loss courtesy of freshman reserve Jayden McBride, who went to the line with the score tied, 28-28. Up until that point of overtime, each team had one missed 3-pointer and a turn over.
“I said, ‘They have to go in.’ And then I missed my first one and was like, ‘ Oh my,’” McBride said, smiling. Her sister, Kayla, was a former Villa Maria star who now plays for the Minnesota
Lynx of the WNBA.
After McBride’s first attempt rimmed out, the second swished through to put the Victors ahead. Beaver raced down court and got the ball to junior Payton List, who appeared to throw her left shoulder into Villa Maria defender Sydney Pearson just before banking in the shot with 2.3 seconds left. List was called for the foul. And after Abby Waid missed the front end of a 1and-1, Beaver rebounded and misfired on a desperation heave.
“We can’t ask for anything more than that,” Beaver coach Greg Huston said of the shot by List that would have given the Bobcats the lead. “I’ll have to watch the film to see if maybe she did lower the shoulder, but in the moment, I didn’t feel like therewas anything there. Nobody went to the floor. I thought she did everything right in the moment. It’s a tough call.
“It’s a tough way to end your season on a charge call where you make the bucket to go up. We’re frustrated by that, but those are things you can’t control. And the things you can control, we didn’t do enough of those things.”
Beaver appeared to be in control after a string of six consecutive free throws (two by Maddi Weiland, two by List, and two by Emma Pavelek) gave the Bobcats a 27-23 advantage with 1:36 left in regulation. But McBride cut Villa Maria’s deficit to one on a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left. Pavelek followed by going 1 of 2 from the line, increasing Beaver’s lead to 2826. Then, after four consecutive timeouts (one by Beaver and three by Villa Maria), the Victors inbounded and Waid scored on an acrobatic layup with eight seconds remaining to force overtime.
Pavelek and List each scored 10 points for Beaver, while Rachel Majewski led Villa Maria with eight.
The game not getting out of the 20s was no surprise considering Beaver entered the afternoon giving up 25 points a game and Villa Maria just 20. Beaver shot 30% (9 of 30) from the field and Villa Maria 36% (12 of 33).
It was a tough end to the careers of Pavelek and her four senior teammates, who a week earlier led Beaver to its first WPIAL title.
Said Pavelek, “The hardest part about playing against that team is not only are they skilled, but once it came down to the end there, we knew that was it for us all together.”