The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Perry wins with buzzer beater
When a team shuts out an opponent for an entire quarter, many would think that it wouldn’t be a competitive game. That couldn’t have been further from the truth when Perry took on Salem on Feb. 27.
After the Pirates raced to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, the Quakers started chipping away, and before the beginning of the fourth quarter, they had taken the lead 30-26. What ensued was 8 minutes of pure entertainment for basketball fans.
Perry regained the lead thanks to a 3 by Margaux Jean and a six free throws by Elle Infalvi. But Salem struck back with a 3 by Krista Barley to take a 40-38 lead with 4.4 seconds left. With such little time left, there weren’t many options for the Pirates. But one option that they did have was their all time leading scorer, Madyson Hacking.
Hacking got off a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, banked the shot off the glass and through the net to win the game for Perry, 41-40, and send them to the regional round of the playoffs.
“I saw it bank and was just thinking please go in,” said Hacking when asked about the shot. “When I saw it go in I was in so much shock.”
Perry, which will next play Poland Seminary in a regional semifinal, did have to weather the storm of Salem’s comeback bid. After having their opponents come back into the game, Hacking reminded herself that she and her teammates just needed to calm down.
“I just needed to stay calm and take a deep breath,” said Hacking. “Just go through everything and do whatever it takes to get the win. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, whatever you have to do, just do it.”
While Hacking finished with 10 points, her teammates also played huge roles in this victory. Infalvi finished with 11 and JaC’ana Anderson played physical down low coming down with rebounds and finishing with eight points. Versatility was a big asset for the Pirates, and coach Roy Infalvi knows that it is a valuable asset at this point in the season.
“It’s huge for us,” said Infalvi. “JaC’ana made eight foul shots for us tonight. We had great defensive play across the board tonight as well. Marcella (Rodriguez) and Gigi (Vicini) both made big hustle plays on that side of the ball. We need those types of plays and we need players to step up to make those plays.”
Despite their comeback attempt falling short with just tenths of seconds left on the clock, Salem has nothing to hang their heads about. Infalvi knew that his team wasn’t out of the woods when the lead at halftime was 21-12. He was able to calm his team down and get them back in their game plan.
“Things weren’t going great for us right now, but we had plenty of time left,” said Infalvi. “We’ve been in these situations before against good teams and just needed to settle in. We had to force them to make mistakes and that’s something we didn’t do which let them get back in the game.”
Along with her late 3, Barley would finish with six points in the game. Abbie Davidson led the way for the Quakers with 11 while Abby Perry and Kyla Jamison would also finish with 6.