DIXFIELD — Kelsey Hutchins had everything under control.
She had established proper post position. She received the entry pass and made a smooth move to put up the shot.
Then it was all out of her hands. The Dirigo junior forward could only watch as her shot toyed with the rim and her emotions.
“I got the ball up and it rolled,” Hutchins said. “It was really low. I came underneath the rim and it went up and rolled up over it. I was never so happy to see a roll in my life.”
For a Dirigo team that has struggled to win of late, the beneficial roll was just the kind of reversal of fortune the Cougars needed. Hutchins shot ultimately rolled up and over the rim and lifted Dirigo to a thrilling 36-35 win over St. Dom’s.
Dirigo (9-6) had lost five of its last seven games, including two straight and a nail-biter against the Saints Tuesday.
“We’ve been in a little bit of a slump lately and losing by one or three,” Hutchins said. “So we really needed this. We had a really good practice (Thursday). We knew coming in that we definitely needed it and wanted it. We had just played them. So we knew what to expect.”
Of the five recent losses, three of them were by one point. Another loss was by only three. It has been a frustrating stretch that had dropped the Cougars down the Western C standings into seventh.
“I told them that no matter whether we win or lose, we’re not going to get No. 1 or No. 2,” said Dirigo coach Reggie Weston, whose team bumped up to fifth with the win. “We’re going to play somebody in a prelim. We just have to keep moving forward.”
The Cougars rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final three-plus minutes. The Cougars forced seven St. Dom’s turnovers and limited the Saints to just one shot from the floor in the entire final quarter.
“We had our chances,” said St. Dom’s coach Jon Berry, whose team is ranked first in Western C. “We just weren’t able to get them. I can’t fault our effort. Our execution was pretty darn good.”
Jessica Conant led the Cougars with 14 points. Lauren Henderson added eight while Hutchins finished with seven. The Saints (12-3) were led by Kelly Pomerleau with 18. Alexis Dwinell had seven while Callie Greco added eight. St. Dom’s was playing without starting forward Faith Grady. She had been injured in the win against Dirigo earlier in the week. Though a concussion was ruled out and Grady was able to return to that game, Berry gave her the night off for precautionary reasons.
Despite only have six players, the Saints had a 35-28 lead late in the fourth quarter. Two free throws by Dwinell and one from Pomerleau had Dirigo in a hole. Pomerleau’s second free throw was waived off because of a lane violation.
Dirigo answered with a free throw from Hutchins with 2:48 left. Then Conant converted a three-point play to make it 35-32. Henderson hit a short jumper with 1:48 left to get the Cougars within 35-34.
The Saints missed its final four free throws. When Hutchins grabbed a rebound of a missed foul shot with 40 seconds left, the Cougars had the chance for the lead. Dirigo worked the ball around the perimeter. Then Lindsy Crutchfield fed Hutchins in the post for the game-winner.
“Our team is really good at freelancing,” Hutchins said. “So we were just trying to find the open person. Coach is always telling me to post up. Lindsy found me and gave me a perfect pass. I was a little worried going up because I knew it was important.”
The Saints had six seconds left to produce a final shot. After losing the ball out of bounds with less than a second, St. Dom’s got a last-ditch heave at the buzzer, for its first field goal attempt of the final quarter.
“We talked about having to dig a little deeper because they have a good guard,” Weston said. “Kelly is one of the best in the league. We wanted to slow her down but we had to go after her. We had to take some chances.”
Dirigo started the game strong as Conant scored eight in the first quarter for an early 14-11 lead. The Cougars then struggled against the St. Dom’s zone and the Saint opened a 26-20 lead at the half. Pomerleau had seven points during that stretch while Dwinell had six. Dirigo hit just one of its first seven shots in the quarter.
In the third, Dirigo still struggled, starting 0-for-6, and fell behind by as many as 12 points. Two baskets by Greco and a drive by Pomerleau made it 32-20.
In the fourth, Dirigo finally began to show some urgency and intensity on defense. A 3 from Henderson opened the quarter and suddenly turned a seven-point lead into a 32-28 game with 6:04 left.
“Once we got down, we knew they were stalling,” said Hutchins. “We knew we had to get it back. We got up. The noise from the crowd, we feed off that and that gave us energy.”
Dirigo’s pressure forced some turnovers and the Saints could only get three free throws in the final quarter.
“They changed up the defense just a little bit,” Berry said. “I think we handled it fine. We did okay, but when you start missing free throws and start lobbing the ball against a pressure defense, we gave them some openings. They took advantage of it.”
kmills@sunjournal.com
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