Scott’s girls basketball team had their ticket punched to March at their fingertips.
Bishop Brossart then snatched the golden ticket away.
The Mustangs rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to stun the host Eagles on Wednesday night in Taylor Mill, outscoring Scott 25-5 in the second half for a 41-37 victory.
“It was one of those nights where we just had to gut through it,” Mustangs coach Steve Brown said.
The Brossart victory now creates a three-way tie for the top spot in the 37th District tournament with the Mustangs, Eagles and Campbell County, all three at 1-1 in district play. That scenario sets up a blind draw where pill numbers will decide who plays who and who gets the first round bye and an automatic bid into the 10th Region tournament in March. The same thing happened last season.
“That’s the 37th District, so now we go to the pill bottle,” Brown said. “Tonight enabled us to give us a chance to be able to draw the No. 1 pill. Without that, we knew we were facing Campbell County. Now we get a chance.”
For the first 16 minutes, the scenario above wasn’t even a thought. Scott was dominating the action, crashing the boards hard and shooting out to a 32-16 lead. They were getting valuable contributions up and down the lineup, most notably Jayla Sanders coming off the bench and providing a first quarter scoring spark with seven points and a Scott 17-8 lead.
Brossart looked to have regrouped thanks to Ava Walters coming in off the bench and scoring four points in a row to make it 20-14, but the Eagles would end the half on a 12-2 run to take the commanding 16-point lead at the half.
“We didn’t guard very well at all, we didn’t rebound very well at all,” Brown said.
Eighth grader Kylie Smith then decided to start taking matters into her own hands. The Brossart guard scored six straight out of the half, igniting a 10-0 run in the first 4:23 of the third to get the Mustangs right back in it.
“It started on the defensive end really and stopping the ball,” Smith said. ” I knew we needed to drive more to get some quick, easy buckets.”
Noelle Price’s 3-pointer with 2:17 left in the third was Scott’s only points of the frame, Brossart climbing back within three at 35-32 after three quarters of play.
Scott’s offensive woes continued, Zoey Woosley’s layup with 6:47 left in the game giving Brossart their first lead of the game at 36-35.
“Shots didn’t fall and then we had some bickering between teammates,” Eagles coach Eric Pouncy said. “It kind of disbanded us a little bit and affected us. We stressed to them at halftime this game was not over. They defended, credit them to their defense and shutting everything down in the second half.”
Smith added to the Brossart lead with four points on putbacks, Nakiah Mejia’s layup making it 40-37 Brossart with 1:57 remaining. The Eagles had multiple chances to tie things up in the final two minutes, most notably on Madeline Spencer’s 3-pointer that went halfway down and spun out from the rim with seven seconds remaining.
“I’m going to have to check that goal. It was like slow motion to me,” Pouncy said. “Don’t know how that didn’t go down.”
It still left the Eagles seven seconds left to draw up a chance at a game-tying play, but the inbounds pass was errant from under the basket and went out of bounds.
Smith was fouled with 3.5 seconds left, after missing the first, she calmly stepped back up to the line to hit the second and clinch the shocking victory for the Mustangs.
“Just needed to step back from the line, take a breathe and knock it down,” Smith said.
Smith led the Mustangs with 11 points, all of them coming in the second half. Rachel Shewmaker added nine, battling through an ankle injury she suffered before halftime. Walters added eight off the bench while Zoee Meyers chipped in seven points.
The two are no strangers to close contests against one another, Wednesday night marking the eighth time in the last 10 meetings the game has been decided by 10 points or less.
Regardless of what happens with the draw for the No. 1 seed, the 37th District tournament figures to be a knockdown, drag out regardless of the matchup. In the three matchups in district play, they were decided by a combined 10 points.
“We’ve dug ourselves huge holes in both games,” Brown said. “We’ve got some kids that just believe and don’t fear anything and will battle to the end. When you have those kind of kids, you’re in the game until the very end.”
Scott was led by Noelle Price with 12 points, Nakiah Mejia with nine, Sanders with seven, all of them coming in the first quarter. The Eagles return to action on Saturday at Bourbon County at 1:30 p.m.
Brossart hosts Augusta on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
MUSTANGS 41, EAGLES 37
BISHOP BROSSART — 8-8-16-9 — 41
SCOTT — 17-15-3-2 — 37
Scoring
Brossart (41) — Smith 11, Shewmaker 9, Walters 8, Meyers 7, Woosley 4, Kramer 2
Scott (37) — Price 12, Mejia 9, Sanders 7, Kaia Peterson 5, Kourtney Peterson 4
Game Stats
3-Pointers made: Brossart 1, Scott 2
Free Throws: Brossart 2/4, Scott 5/9
Fouls: Brossart 12, Scott 15
Records: Bishop Brossart (15-7, 1-1), Scott (15-9, 1-1)