The Westlake Demons and River Pirates had two games come down to the wire last year and today was no different as the Demons came out on top 40-38 with a thrilling 13-point fourth quarter come from behind victory over their rivals.  The fourth quarter rally was fueled by the clutch play from Jacia Onunwir who had 6 of her 11 points arrive in the closing moments of the game.

Also stepping up big in the fourth was the Demons leading point scorer Ella Henton with 6 of her team high 15 coming in the final frame.  Also scoring for the Demons was Liana Ostrowski and Ella Stanton with 5 each while Husneya Najjar and Lucy Puchmeyer had 2 each.

For the Pirates, they found a seal on the rim in the fourth, being held to just 5 points in the final 8 minutes of action.  For the night, they were led by Nora Bruder with 13 while Libby Lang had 10.  Rounding out the scoring for River was Claudia Roche with 6 while Olivia Dewey had 5 and Bridget Carlin 3.

It was a slow start to the scoring as the first two minutes only saw buckets made by Jacia Onunwor of Westlake and Bridget Carlin of River, both three balls.  It took awhile for the scoring to pick up as we hit the four-minute mark of the first quarter, and it was 5-3 River, on a Lang bucket.  After falling down to a 7-3 disadvantage, Westlake scored 6 straight with points from Stanton, Henton and Ostrowski  to take a 9-7 lead.  Moments later, Bruder hit a three for the Pirates and handed them the lead right back at 10-9. The first quarter ended with both teams tied at 11.

The second quarter started out tight as well, with only 4 combined points in the first four minutes until Dewey hit a three to spring River to a 16-13 lead. From there, the next time down the court it was Bruder draining one from deep and suddenly River led 19-13.  Henton hit one for the Demons before Bruder nailed another one, keeping the lead at 6 as the Pirates led 22-16. They weren’t done yet however as the next time down, it was Clarudia Roche hitting a nice jumper from the corner after making a nice move to get open, extending the Pirate lead to 24-16, their largest of the night. The Pirates took a 27-18 lead into the break.

The Pirates maintained the lead through the third quarter as they held a 33-23 lead with one quarter to play. When Nora Bruder banked in a three pointer to make it 36-23 Pirates with 6:56 to play, it looked as though the Pirates were about to cruise to another victory over Westlake, but the Demons showed that this game was a long way from being over.

Down 36-23 with 5:03 to play, the Demons began their comeback.  They got started with a Onunwor second effort drive to the lane from the corner to begin the scoring.  From there, an Ostrowski three from the corner cut it to 36-28, and the Demons had life.  A full court trap caused a Pirate turnover and led to a Henton fast break bucket, slicing the lead to 36-30.  Two Lang foul shots cooled the Demons for a brief second and built the Pirate lead back up to 38-30 with 3:26 to play.

Henton took another fast break from pillar to post, scoring and cutting it to 38-32 with 2:44 to play. From there, buckets by Najjar and Henton cut it to 38-36 with 1:15 remaining on the clock. From there, an Onunwor contested layup tied it at 38 with 41 second left to play in regulation.  Onunwor wasn’t done, she contested a Pirate shot and got the ball right back, keeping her balance and then racing downcourt where she gave the Demons a chance to call a timeout and set up one final play with 15 seconds to go.

Onunwor took the inbounds pass and dribbled to the top of the key, she then waited until about 5 seconds remained and drove in for a contest layup, sinking it with a rubber rim and handing the Demons a thrilling 40-38 conference win.