Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves’ Carliese O’Brien, at right, watches as teammate Madison Alstrom-Beans battles Sitka Wolves’ Jocelyn and Ava Brady for a rebound in the last seconds of Wednesday's game. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
The Sitka High Lady Wolves held a 1 point lead with only seconds left in the game. But the Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves had time for one final play before the buzzer.
It started with a foul, with just 12.1 seconds left on the clock. Sitka missed both foul shots - one final chance to stretch their lead and secure the Region V title.
Edgecumbe’s TeHana Baldwin caught the rebound.
The Lady Braves rushed down the court before Sitka could assemble a defense. Baldwin passed to her teammate, freshman Tessa Anderson.
With just 7.2 seconds left, she handed off to Laci Prince, who drove through a gap in Sitka’s perimeter.
And there on the inside stood another freshman, Lady Braves Carliese O’Brien. Prince made the pass and O’Brien shot with only 2.6 seconds remaining.
She scored, securing the Lady Braves’ first win of the season. Edgecumbe players and fans erupted.
Mt. Edgecumbe’s girls won the game 40-39 at the 11th hour, pushing the Region V contest into a third tie-breaker game tonight. The Lady Wolves won the first game of the series, Tuesday night 43-22.
O’Brien recalled the moment.
“I was so nervous, just so many thoughts in my head. I was like, ‘Shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot it!’ And so I grabbed it and I shot,” she remembered. “My body got so tense and I was shaking. I don’t know – it felt great.”
She credited her team as a whole for pulling together and earning their first win of the year.
“We really pulled it together and brought out our all tonight. We worked well as a team… and we worked hard,” she said.
Those decisive final seconds were a heady mix of emotions for senior Laci Prince.
“I was very surprised and excited at the same time, but also scared, a lot of emotions going through my head,” she said.
“Is it really happening?” she remembered asking herself.
Watching from the bench after fouling out, Lady Braves junior Lisa Strom knew that the final play was her team’s last chance.
“My mind was blank. I was like this is win or die, but either way I was really super proud of how far we’ve come into the game, being up by 10 at a point was pretty amazing because we never had that all season. When (O’Brien) made that shot, I was like she can do this, she’s one of our best scorers as a freshman,” Strom said. Her fifth and final foul with 12.1 seconds remaining precipitated the dramatic series of events at the close of the game.
But the Lady Braves did not only play hard in the closing moments.
After an entire season of falling to the Lady Wolves, Edgecumbe led 19-15 at the half. In the third quarter, the Lady Braves stretched their lead to a full 10 points, but Sitka, ever tenacious, pushed back. The fourth quarter opened with Edgecumbe up 34-30.
The rival teams locked horns for the next several minutes, though Sitka missed five foul shots early in the fourth.
Despite this, the Lady Wolves closed the gap, tying the game 34-34 with 3:18 remaining. The home team pushed ahead, only for Sitka to catch up again, tying the game again at 36-36.
A basket by O’Brien gave the Lady Braves a scant lead, but Lady Wolves Maitlin Young scored a three pointer with only 1:25 to go. Sitka’s fans were electrified as their team led by 1 point.
In the closing seconds, Edgecumbe’s formidable full court press stymied the Wolves’ offense, leading to the last, decisive foul at 12.1 seconds.
As the game wore on and the teams remained in a stalemate, O’Brien remained confident.
“I was thinking to myself that we could beat them, and we just had to believe in ourselves,” she said.
Strom said that the entire day leading up to the game felt right.
“I’m ready, I felt it on our first day at Sitka High but I didn’t have that good feeling, I felt we were going to play good but I didn’t have the best feeling…. This morning I woke up and everybody was happy and ready to play… I woke up like, this is our gym, our crowd, and we can do it,” Strom said.
While Edgecumbe has often played hard for parts of a game, the Lady Braves pushed hard for all of Wednesday’s game, Prince said.
“Pushing through the whole game, four quarters,” she said.
Edgecumbe coach Kathy Forrester highlighted her players’ aggression.
“Every game we try to be a little more aggressive on defense, and we were super aggressive,” Forrester said.
Like Prince, the coach noted that her team has had difficulties playing well for all four quarters.
“I don’t think we changed that fast. It’s been a constant. We see that play for half a game and then we go downhill… It’s about everybody stepping up, not just four or five kids,” she said.
The Lady Braves defense proved itself as well, often preventing Sitka from breaking through or passing to the inside.
“Our defense stepped it up, our defense is everything winning the game. If you don’t have a defense you don’t win the game,” MEHS assistant coach Janet Schwartz said after the victory.
Forrester agreed.
“That’s my favorite part, when we don’t let them score for a few minutes and the coach has to call a timeout. That’s my favorite part of a game when that happens. We may not get the ball, but we keep them from scoring, and that’s good defense,” she said. This happened early in the fourth when Sitka tried and failed to punch through Edgecumbe’s defense for over a minute.
Looking forward, O’Brien was excited for the chance to play three more years of basketball for the Lady Braves.
“I’m really thankful. Back at home (in Bethel) we weren’t able to go to school or play any sports, so I’m glad that I got the opportunity to come here. And it’s just crazy that I’m able to come to school and even be in a gym and play sports. It’s really exciting and I’m looking forward to the rest of these years,” she said.
Thinking about her team’s win, O’Brien summarized the reasons in a single statement:
“We just played our hearts out.”
The rival squads face off again at 7 p.m. tonight at Sitka High.
