BEAVERCREEK — Great players make great shots in clutch situations and Wayne senior guard Destiny Bohanon came up with a big one Dec. 5 at Beavercreek at the buzzer.
With Wayne trailing by a point Bohanon managed to split a pair of defenders as she drove into the right side of the lane near the baseline to score the apparent winning basket at the buzzer. But an official called Bohanon for a player control foul to negate the score.
Bohanon sank a pair of free throws with just under a minute to play to put Wayne up 51-46 but Maci Rhoades buried a 3-pointer to make it 51-49. With 16 seconds left Alyssa Hall drew a foul and sank both free throws to tie it 51-51.
Wayne’s Nyla Hampton got fouled by Kirsten Williams and sank both shots with 14.6 seconds left. Alyssa Hall drove the left side of the lane to score and drew foul from Bohanon with 6.9 seconds left. Hall sank the free throw to put ‘Creek up 54-53. Bohanon managed to score at the buzzer but the shot was wiped out by the player control foul.
The foul allowed Beavercreek to walk away with a hard-fought 54-53 division victory to hand Wayne its first loss of the season. With the win Beavercreek improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play while Wayne fell to 3-1 and 1-1 in the conference.
“We were fortunate. They missed a lot of makeable shots inside that they might not normally miss,” said Beavercreek Coach Ed Zink. “Our kids played their hearts out and battled them. I think they caused some of their shooting problems. We didn’t shoot it real well either. Both teams defensively played real well and both teams played hard. It’s a great game to win and I know it’s a tough one to lose.”
Coming up with a big victory over National East division rival Wayne was a boost to a Beavercreek team reeling from a 76-37 loss Saturday at the hands of Cincinnati Mt. Notre Dame.
“We did not play with the intensity Saturday that we did today,” Zink added. “Now, Notre Dame is good. They are loaded, but they shouldn’t have beaten us that bad. The kids learned from that and came out and played harder tonight.”
From the outset the game saw both teams commit plenty of turnovers. Wayne managed to take a 14-7 lead by the end of the first quarter but Beavercreek got a 3-pointer by Rhoades, a free throw by Tiernan McKitrick and a bucket by Hall to take a 19-17 lead. Wayne countered with a 3-pointer by Bohanon followed by a pair of steals and baskets by Aubryanna Hall and Nyla Hampton to regain the lead 24-19. The Lady Warriors held a 27-21 lead at halftime.
Kyra Willis scored early in the third quarter to boost Wayne’s lead to 29-21 but Beavercreek fought back. Williams scored and drew a foul with less than a second left in the period and sank the bonus shot to knot the score at 34.
Hall and Hampton scored back-to-back 3-pointers to put Wayne up 40-34 at the start of the final period. Bohanon buried a trey to make it 43-35 and the Lady Warriors appeared to be in the driver’s seat. Beavercreek got a basket by Maggie Holstein, a free throw by Williams, Hall buried a 3-pointer and Taylor Steinbrunner scored inside to cut Wayne’s lead to 43-42 with 2:51 remaining.
Hall scored eight points in the fourth quarter to lead Beavercreek’s comeback and set up the last second drama that determined the outcome of the game.
“I am not even going to argue about that call because we lost that game 20 possessions earlier,” said Wayne Coach Travis Trice. “From the start we didn’t do anything that we talked about doing in practice. We didn’t do any of the things that we had written up on the board. We didn’t execute, we didn’t share the ball and those are the things that happened.”
Trice said the strategy was to force Alyssa Hall to shoot from her right hand but she managed to drive in from the left the entire game, a fact that proved costly. She led all scorers with 21 points.
“She made us pay for it,” Trice added. “I don’t have any arguments or complaints about the call whatsoever. I am more disappointed in the effort that we gave throughout the entire game.”
