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For the second time in two years, the Lady Demons of Westlake went on the road against a top SWC team and won on a buzzer beater in front of an emotional crowd. This time it was the tiny but mighty Anna Williams with the dagger! Her shot to win it at the buzzer sent the Demons in to the thrill of victory while the Eagles would endure the agony of bitter defeat on senior night.
The Williams buzzer beater sealed the 31-29 win and should give Westlake a clear path at second place in the SWC. This game was a rematch of the 28-27 nail biter December 23rd that Westlake won. When these two teams hook it up, the scoring is at a minimum but the effort is at a maximum.
While the final bucket of the game was scored by Anna Williams, it was Kiley Williams of Avon scoring the first points of the game. Katie Whitesell of Westlake and the famed Abbie Gardner Katie Whitesell dynamic duo would score the next 8 straight, bolting the Lady Demons out to a 8-2 lead.
The Eagles would battle back with a three from Alyssa Peganoff and a runner by Brooke Laub to cut it to 8-7. Two Abby Liber foul shots later, and suddenly it was a 7-0 run, and a 9-8 Eagle lead with 1:36 to go. Another two fouls shots, this time by Brooke Laub and the Eagles would take a 11-8 lead into the second quarter.
The return of Anika Norris to the Westlake offense had an immediate impact in the second quarter as she came out and hit the first two shots of the quarter. This reclaimed the lead for the Demons at 12-11.
The Demon defense was stingy, working a strict man to man to hold the Eagles in check. Avon used an Abby Liber fast break transition bucket off of a missed foul shot to get their first points of the quarter at the 4:30 mark. The Liber left-handed spin move is a thing of beauty.
However, foul trouble for the Eagles would continue to send the Lady Demons to the line. Morgan Kress nailed two quick ones to put the Demons ahead 14-13. Moments later a Gigi Redinger three ball would extend the lead to 17-13. The Demons would then take a 17-15 lead into the break.
The Lady Demons would get back-to-back buckets from the Dynamic Duo of Gardner and Whitesell to extend the lead to 21-15 right out of the gate in the second half. With 3:00 to go in the third quarter, it was 23-17 Westlake as their aggressive defense would continue to keep the Eagles grounded. The quarter would finish with Westlake on top 25-20. Grace Santee had 3 of the Eagles 5 points in the quarter.
Alyssa McLellon would make a layup and get fouled to start the fourth. She sunk the foul shot and cut the lead to 25-23 with 7:02 to play. The score would remain that way for three plus minutes until Gardner found a slashing Whitesell in the lane for the open layup to move it to 27-23 Demons.
With 39 seconds to go, Abbie Gardner sunk two pressure packed foul shots to make it 29-25 Demons. Speaking of clutch shots, Avon would then hit one as Alyssa McLellon nailed a three from the corner to make it 29-28 with 28 seconds to go as Avon called timeout. Avon then came out with incredible defensive pressure to force a turnover by the Demons and gave them the ball back with 20 seconds left down one.
Abby Liber would make her first foul shot of two after being fouled at the 10 second mark to tie it at 29. Westlake coach Cory Rojeck then elected to call his final timeout between the first and second foul shot from Liber to set up one final play off either a rebound or made shot.
Liber would miss and the ball would get tipped to Summer Salem. She then raced down the court, and was swarmed by all five Avon Eagles. Salem used laser vision to somehow find a wide-open Anna Williams who calmly sunk the shot as time expired. She was covered for a brief moment until the defender left her open.
