Lady Eagles claw out win

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Lady Eagles found themselves grounded for 35 minutes and 41 seconds before taking flight with 19 seconds left in their girls basketball game with Kittitas Tuesday night.

The Lady Eagles trailed the Coyotes for nearly four quarters Tuesday night before senior Chelsea Allen gave Soap Lake its first lead of the game with 19 seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter, propelling the Lady Eagles to a 35-34 home victory.

Soap Lake fell behind early in the first quarter and struggled for most of the game before pulling within two points of the Coyotes at 34-32 with 1:12 left to play.

The Lady Eagles forced a Coyotes turnover on Kittitas’ ensuing possession.

With 50 seconds left in the contest, senior Taylor Hinkle brought the ball up the court before a Kittitas foul sent Soap Lake’s leading scorer to the free-throw line with an opportunity to tie the game for the Lady Eagles.

Hinkle missed the first of two shots before Soap Lake head coach Larry Moffet called timeout to calm his Lady Eagles.

“I don’t care how far down you get (in a game),” he said. “You have to play four quarters.”

After the teams broke from the Soap Lake timeout, Hinkle edged her toes to the line and scored her game-leading 19th point on her second attempt to help the Lady Eagles pull within one point of Kittitas at 34-33.

With 44 seconds left, Kittitas took possession of the ball, pushed through a tough Soap Lake press and the Coyotes began to run their offense.

However, a stingy Soap Lake defense forced another Kittitas turnover with 33 seconds left.

The Lady Eagles inbounded the basketball and pushed the ball the length of the court before Moffet called another timeout, this time to set up his offense around Allen.

“She is a our shooter,” Moffet said.

While in the timeout with his team, Moffet essentially put the ball in Allen’s hands.

The senior didn’t disappoint her coach or her teammates.

The Lady Eagles inbouned the ball and began to run their offense. Soap lake passed the ball around for 8 seconds before Allen found herself with possession of the basketball from 14-feet out.

With the game on the line, Allen pulled up to shoot the most important Soap Lake shot of the game.

Moffet said he had all the confidence in the world to put the game and the ball in the hands of his play-maker.

“She is a senior,” he said of Allen. “She needs to step up.”

The ball left Allen’s finger tips and arced toward the basket.

Allen’s shot bounced off the orange rim before falling through the twine to give the Lady Eagles a 35-34 lead with only 19 seconds left in the contest.

With the game on the line Allen said she was praying the ball would fall through the hoop.

“Thank God,” she said of the basket. “I was hoping it would go in.”

The Coyotes desperately moved the ball down the court with hopes of regaining the lead on the road.

Soap Lake’s defense had other plans, holding the Coyotes to one shot which sailed wide of the basket.

Although Moffet put the game in Allen’s hands, he said the victory belonged to his team.

“That’s a team win,” he said. “That is everyone on the bench cheering on their team. That is everyone playing defense and that is everyone playing together.”

After her team defeated Kittitas, Allen said she couldn’t believe how the game unfolded.

“It’s amazing,” she said of the victory. “It feels great.”

Moffet said the key to the victory was his players’ ability — especially that of junior Samantha Marthini — to keep the Kittitas post players off of the scoreboard, 

“She played a great game defensively,” Moffet said of Marthini.

Despite a frustrating first quarter which saw the Lady Eagles fall behind 19-6, Marthini said Moffet told her to continue to play defense.

“He said keep it up,” she said.