Crown Point vs. Portage
Click here to view The Times coverage of this game

Portage's Michelle Pickering (left) puts the defensive
pressure on junior Bulldog Sarah Zondor as she looks
to pass.

Crown Point 38, Portage 41

What started out as a pretty sluggish game, turned into a fast paced, down to the wire finish at Crown Point. Crown Point was plagued by turnovers in the first half, but managed to stay close on balanced scoring from 6 different CP players.  Portage was struggling on a poor shooting night with only 3 points combined in the first half from seniors Michele Pickering and Natalie Yudt, but senior Cheryl Buergler and junior Lauren Hansen came through to keep Portage ahead by 2 at the halftime break.

The second half was pretty exciting as Crown Point settled down, and forced several Portage turnovers with quickness on the full court press. The lead changed hands several times throughout, and it looked like CP might be on the way to the upper hand with just :58 seconds left in the game, when a running jumper in the lane by freshman Nicole Smoljan off an assist by Sarah Zondor tied the score 37-37. That's where it got interesting.

With 14 seconds on clock, Crown Point forced a turnover and sophomore Alex Webster was fouled as she drove to the basket. Webster hit 1 of 2 free throws to give Crown Point a 38-37 lead. It was short-lived, however, as Pickering was fouled on the inbounds play resulting in a 1-and-1. Pickering confidently dropped both free throws to give the lead back to Portage at 39-38.

It wasn't over, however, when with just 3 seconds left, Webster was fouled hard as she slashed to the basket. Webster missed the front end of the 1-1, and was forced to foul senior Natalie Yudt who came down with the rebound with just tenths of a second left on the clock. Yudt dropped both free throws to ice the win. Give credit to the two crafty veterans, Yudt and Pickering from Portage for solid free throw shooting in the closing seconds of the game to escape with a DAC victory on the road.
      

Varsity Scoring by Quarters:
CP	5	9	13	11	38
Por	8	9	9	15	41

CP - Webster 10 (2 blocks), Smoljan 6 (6 rebounds), Zondor 5 (4 stls, 4 assts), Lemke 4, Borys 4, Plumley 4, Carnahan 3