WEST FOREST 66, UNION 64, 2 OT

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Jan. 27, 2009

RIMERSBURG – West Forest outscored Union 11-9 in the second overtime to remain unbeaten with a 66-64 win in KSAC girls’ basketball crossover action at Union Tuesday night.

Geena Sneeringer scored a career-high 36 points for West Forest (16-0 overall, 13-0 KSAC-North) while also grabbing 14 rebounds, 10 on the offensive boards, and had 10 steals helping to offset a 26-point, 12-rebound night from Union’s Tina Lipps in a game that matched the division leaders in the KSAC-North (West Forest) and KSAC-South (Union).

West Forest survived two late Union (12-5, 10-2 KSAC-South) shots – one at the end of the first overtime and one late in the second overtime – to get the victory.

The first survival came in part thanks to an official’s whistle and in part thanks to a great defensive play by Sneeringer at the end of the first overtime.

With the game tied at 54, Union’s Lepha Logue drove to the hoop but missed a contested layup. The rebound fell to the ground where Logue picked it up and took a dribble step backward to attempt a potential game-winning layup. But one of the officials blew the whistle indicating one of West Forest’s players was bleeding around halfcourt. Union retained possession of the ball, and got the inbound pass to Logue, whose shot was blocked by Sneeringer necessitating a second overtime.

Then in the second overtime, with West Forest clinging to a 63-62 lead, Shook missed a wide open 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, and West Forest got the rebound. For whatever reason, Union didn’t foul immediately, and in fact didn’t foul until Sneeringer drove to the hoop and made a layup to give the Lady Indians a 65-62 lead. Sneeringer then hit the free throw to seal the win before Lipps finished off the scoring with a layup at the horn.

West Forest had started the second overtime with back-to-back 3-pointers from Sneeringer and Erica Blum to take a 60-54 lead before Union fought its way back to within a point.

Union trailed the entire game until Courtney Fredrick put the Golden Damsels ahead 42-40 with 5:56 to play in regulation.

Union got the lead up to 47-44 with 1:30 left before West Forest answered with a 5-0 run to go up 49-47 on a Rachel Greathouse offensive rebound and putback with 1:03 left in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Indians had a chance to expand the lead, but Amanda Carll missed two free throws with 45 seconds to play.

Shook then missed a shot with 28 seconds left but stole the ball from a West Forest player and was fouled with 22 seconds to play in regulation. She hit both free throws to tie the game at 49.

Blum then missed a jumper with eight seconds to play, but Union turned the ball over giving West Forest one last chance to win the game in regulation. Sneeringer’s shot at the horn, however, bounced off the rim sending the game to overtime.

West Forest led 12-6 at the end of the first quarter and 32-26 at halftime after each team exploded for 20 points in the second quarter. Sneeringer and Lipps each scored 12 points for their respective teams in the second eight minutes.

Union then cut the lead to 40-38 at the end of three quarters before finally going ahead early in the fourth.

Blum added 12 points for West Forest, while Greathouse had six points and 13 rebounds.

Logue had a double-double for Union with 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Frederick added 10 points.

NOTES – It was West Forest’s second consecutive overtime win. The Lady Indians beat Keystone 53-47 in one overtime Friday … Union saw its 10-game win streak halted … West Forest hit seven 3-pointers to none by Union, but the Golden Damsels were 18 of 23 from the free-throw line while West Forest was only 17 of 28 … It was the 26th consecutive regular-season win for West Forest, which last lost in the regular season 57-51 at Keystone Jan. 25, 2008 ... The 16 straight wins at the start of a season is a school record for West Forest surpassing the previous mark of 15 set in 1985 ... The game very well could be a prelude to the KSAC title game. Union holds a one-game lead over Moniteau in the KSAC-South with the two teams set to meet for the second time this season Friday night at Union. Union won a 62-53 decision last Wednesday at Moniteau. West Forest, meanwhile, holds a two-game lead over Cranberry in the KSAC-North with the teams slated to meet for a second time Feb. 9 at West Forest. West Forest won 47-44 at Cranberry Dec. 23 … West Forest has now won three straight over Union including a 60-40 win at West Forest in last year’s District 9 Class A Playoffs and a 48-40 victory in Rimersburg last season … Sneeringer now has 1,254 points as a junior and moved past Step Custer (1,243 points) for second in school history in scoring. She is 353 points behind Pam Novosel’s school record of 1,607 points that has stood since 1983. The game marked the fifth time in Sneeringer’s career that she has scored at least 30 points.

WEST FOREST 66, UNION 64, 2 overtimes

Score by Quarters

West Forest 12 20 8 9 6 11 – 66

Union 6 20 12 11 6 9 – 64

West Forest – 66

Geena Sneeringer 12 9-12 36, Alyssa Dreihaup 2 0-0 5, Erica Blum 4 1-2 12, Amanda Carll 1 5-10 7, Rachel Greathouse 2 2-2 6, Grace Wallace 0 0-2 0. Totals 21 17-28 66.  

Union – 64

Courtney Frederick 4 2-4 10, Lanae Cicciarelli 1 2-2 4, Melissa Shook 1 2-2 4, Lepha Logue 3 6-6 12, Tina Lipps 10 6-8 26, Brooke Pollock 4 0-1 8, Amanda Barger 0 0-0 0, Heather Murray 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 18-23 64.   

Three-pointers – West Forest 7 (Sneeringer 3, Blum 3, Dreihaup 1).