Fall Creek girls survive second-half charge, upend McDonell

When Fall Creek girls basketball sophomore Jasmin Heuer was whistled for a traveling call with less than a minute to go and the Crickets clinging to a 43-42 lead over No. 2 Wissports.net Division 4-ranked McDonell, it felt like the sky was falling in Cricket country.

After falling behind by double-digits in the second half, the Macks had the ball with 40 seconds and a chance to take the lead. It felt like the script was in hand, but before McDonell could even get their offense set, the Macks were whistled for an offensive foul. Just like that, a turnover. The ball and all of the momentum they’d built up over the course of the second half were gone.

McDonell had to start fouling. Fall Creek went 5-for-6 from the line down the stretch. The Macks missed a shot and turned it over again on back-to-back possessions before hitting an ultimately meaningless three with 1.2 seconds left and for the first time in two seasons, McDonell had suffered a West Cloverbelt Conference defeat.

The Crickets — who’d been romped 64-44 in the previous meeting between the two — knocked off the Macks 49-45. The win moves Fall Creek and McDonell into a tie in the loss column in conference play. The Crickets (18-3, 12-1 WCC) have just one conference game remaining against Cadott while the Macks (19-2, 11-1) still have Regis and Thorp to face.

“I think just a little more composure,” Fall Creek head coach Jason Martzke said of the difference between the first and second meetings. “I think we got off to a little better start… Getting an early bucket and just getting a little emotion, a little excitement for everybody and just getting after it a little bit that way helped them all.”

Despite defense being the calling card for each squad coming in, the offenses controlled the game for the first third of the opening half. Fall Creek opened the scoring just under ten seconds into the game with a basket following a win on the tipoff.

The Crickets got a number of good looks up close early as McDonell didn’t muster much rim protection. Fall Creek rattled off its first 10 points on five baskets close to the rim. The Crickets also used a number of Macks misses and turnovers on the other end to get out on the run and got some transition buckets.

McDonell’s offense took on a much different approach as Emily Cooper — one of the premier 3-point shooters in the entire area — sank a pair of deep 3-pointers to keep the Macks afloat. McDonell settled in on defense and started to force some turnovers of their own.

Aubrey Dorn stole an errant Crickets entry pass and took it all the way for an and-1 layup on the other end in a play that almost looked like a defensive back intercepting a screen pass for a pick-6. That made it 10-10, but from there, the defense for Fall Creek determined the flow for the remainder of the half.

After Cooper’s pair of three’s, the Crickets decided to switch to a zone and play way up on the perimeter. It wasn’t what Fall Creek is traditionally used to running, but it impacted the Macks ability to not just shoot from beyond-the-arc but simply moving the ball.

The Macks often had to float passes overtop of the Crickets as they clogged up the lanes. That led to numerous forced turnovers, one leading to another transition bucket, this one from Sophie Schmidgall, that made it 15-10 and forced McDonell into a timeout.

“We don’t usually run zone so it’s something a little different,” Martzke said. “We practice and try it a little bit here and there, but we kind of committed to it and they did a nice job early so we just said we’re gonna stick with it.”

Fall Creek kept stretching its lead further and further. After the Macks made it an 18-14 game, the Crickets embarked on a 7-0 run that was capped by a 3-pointer from junior Addy Haynes that made the gym erupt.

The Crickets lead was as big as 13 until the Macks scratched off a quick four points in the final minute to make it 29-20 at the break. Still, the Crickets defense and rebounding had controlled the game up until that point and had a nice cushion going into the second half.

But the Macks didn’t roll over easily. After a couple early baskets put the Crickets ahead by double-digits again, the Macks defense began to take over. McDonell flipped the script on the first half, now forcing turnovers and giving Fall Creek’s offense fits.

The momentum kept building further and further in the Macks direction and it felt like Fall Creek was bending more and more and could potentially break at any moment as McDonell continued to chip away. Martzke could sense it as well, and used a few timeouts in close proximity to each other midway through the half to stem the tide.

It felt like the dam was set to break when Dorn hit an and-1 putback that made it 39-36 with just 6:18 to go, but even though their offense had faded, Fall Creek’s defense kept McDonell just behind them.

The Crickets put just 12 points on the board in the first 14 minutes of the half, but a timely bucket from junior Anna Dougherty made it a two-possession game with 3:10 remaining.

Fall Creek followed that up by forcing Cooper to turn it over on a drive to the basket and it felt like the Crickets were about to put the game to bed.

But McDonell still wouldn’t go away. A turnover led to a basket from Isabel Hartman and after another stop, Cooper struck again and made it 43-42 after a perfect entry pass from Dorn. With just one minute to go, Fall Creek’s lead was down to one point.

That’s as close as the Macks would get, however, as McDonell didn’t even muster a shot on the next possession, turning it into a free-throw game in which Fall Creek did just enough to win. Sophie Schmidgall finished with a team-high 10 points for the Crickets while three other players — Kennedy Tumm, Gracie Marten and Kambel Sell — finished with nine.

The Macks were led in scoring by Emily Cooper who finished with 20 points. Aubrey Dorn finished with 12.

The win for Fall Creek is massive as a win over Cadott ensures at least a split of the conference title. A victory over a powerhouse such as McDonell this close to postseason action is sure to help boost the confidence as well.

“At the beginning of the season we always talk about how the goal is to be playing on Saturday,” Martzke said. “That’s the first or second-place game, playing in regional and sectional final-type games. Just play on Saturday.”