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March 28, 2024 2:22 am
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Fighting It Out To The Finish: Pirate Girls Fall In Three-Overtime Heartbreaker To Mojave

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

Pirate sophomore, Andi Hillstead, goes up for the shot in the first round playoff game against Western last week. PHOTO BY EDEN WHITMORE/Moapa Valley Progress.

The 2017-2018 Girls’ Basketball season has been one of the most remarkable ones in Moapa Valley High School history. The team has made history as one of the first Moapa Valley teams in years to win an outright regular season league title, as well as going undefeated in the regular season for the first time in recent memory. So it was only fitting that one of the most exciting seasons of Lady Pirates basketball should feature one its most thrilling games last week.

With the top seed in the Division 3A Sunrise league, the Pirates earned the opportunity to play at home in the first round of the playoffs. The Pirates began last week hosting Western on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
The Pirates stayed cool and collected on the way to a 55-28 victory against the Warriors. Junior Lainey Cornwall led the team with 23 points and Andalin Hillstead came off the bench to add nine.

With this the Pirates moved one game away from a second trip to the state tournament. In their way was the second seeded Mojave Rattlers of the Sunset league. That matchup took place on Thursday, Feb. 15.
Early on in the game, there was an unsettling feeling for the Pirates. Mojave struck first and the Pirates took a few minutes to get on the scoreboard.

Mojave set the pace with their three point shooting, making back-to-back shots from deep.
Meanwhile, Moapa Valley just couldn’t get a triple to fall. Everything they shot seemed to find a way out of the rim. Moapa just couldn’t seem to shoot itself out of the slump.
A Shelbi Walker three finally eased the cold streak at the end of the quarter. That made the score 10-7, in favor of the Rattlers, after one period.

In the second quarter, the two sides traded buckets. But the Pirates couldn’t track down any luck from downtown. The three pointer has been the team’s best quality this season, as for both volume and efficiency. Now, in the playoffs, it wasn’t there.

Finally, as the quarter winded down, the Pirates were able to see a few shots hit the bottom of the net. Peyton Schraft and Shelbi Walker both hit their corner threes to give Moapa a 24-22 lead at the halftime intermission.

In the second half, each time it seemed Moapa Valley might start to gain traction, the Rattlers would climb back to reclaim control of the game. Neither side could pull away. Mojave would lead 34-33 going into the final quarter of regulation.

With the score tied at 36, Lainey Cornwall and Kaitlyn Andersen scored on fastbreaks after forcing turnovers on the other end. Now with a 40-36 lead, it seemed as if the Pirates were finally going to pull ahead as they had in the past.

But the Rattlers insisted on sticking around. It would be 43-43 with two minutes remaining. The Pirates emphasized time of possession in the final minutes but couldn’t ultimately get the shot they wanted at the buzzer. A neck and neck game was headed to overtime to decide a winner.

The Pirates trailed 47-48 with minutes left in overtime as a Mojave guard hit a shot from the corner to make it a two possession game. Seconds later, the score would grow to 47-53. With just under 24 seconds left and it was Rattlers’ ball. Most teams would prepare to call the game and warm the bus. But this was not most teams. Head coach Stuart Humes called a timeout.
“I told the girls, ‘If we keep believing, we will give ourselves a chance.’,” Humes said. “While I was saying everything I had to say, when I looked into my girls eyes I knew that they believed they could still do this, even though it was a longshot.”

The Rattlers inbounded the ball and the Moapa Valley pressure caused a turnover. With under 20 seconds on the clock, Lainey Cornwall, knocked down the most important three to cut the deficit in half.
Seconds later, the Pirates still hadn’t quit. Another steal. Cornwall got it back and let it fly from the same spot. She sunk it once again to tie the score, 53-53.

Another Mojave inbounds pass. Another steal. Kaitlyn Andersen picked up an offensive rebound and went back up to score it. The whistle blew for a foul and Moapa Valley fans rejoiced.

Among the chaos in the gym as Pirates fans attempted to comprehend the miraculous nature of what just took place, the foul called on the court was ruled after the buzzer. The triumphant wind had been pulled out from under the Pirate fans in attendance. This game was not over just yet. The two teams were headed for a second overtime thanks to team defense and Lainey Cornwall’s timely shooting. It proved there was no quit in the Pirates.
“That will go down as one of the greatest moments for me as a coach,” Humes said. “I will never forget that experience as long as I live. It was incredible to watch.”

In the second overtime, all hope seemed to disappear again. With 51 seconds remaining, the heroine of the first overtime, Cornwall, fouled out of the game on a blocking foul. Meanwhile, the Pirates struggled to make any of their shots from deep – the key storyline of regulation worked its way into the extra periods. The Pirates trailed by three points with under fifteen seconds on the clock.

Without the ability to call on Cornwall to save the team again, the Pirates called on fellow team captain, senior Shelbi Walker. Sure enough, Walker’s reliability from deep was not to be questioned. She delivered the third in the series of clutch Moapa Valley shooting in overtime, once again tying the score, 57-57, and setting up a third overtime.

Early in the third overtime, the Pirates lost their second leading scorer, sophomore Kaitlyn Anderson, who also fouled out. With the Pirates calling on their depth to save the day, they would take care of possession for minutes at a time and bleed the clock dry.

But thanks to a separate pair of Mojave free throws, the Rattlers led 59-57 with seconds remaining. The Pirates tried to draw up a shot for the game. A corner three told the story of the game and was just off target with seconds remaining. The buzzer sounded moments later.

After a marathon-like game that featured some of the greatest thrills of high school basketball, the Pirates did not finish on top. They were left in shock.
“In some ways we are glad that it hurts because it shows how much it means to them,” Humes said. “When these girls gave everything and were willing to work as hard as they did, it puts value on the experience. It makes you feel really good as a coach to know these girls cared as much as they did.”

Looking forward, the Pirates will lose three seniors from this team. Natalie Mills, Shelbi Walker and Macy Morgan will graduate. However, with a young team, the dream of a state ring has not been deferred just yet.
“The future is bright for the Lady Pirates,” Humes said. “Especially any time you return Lainey Cornwall, Kaitlyn Andersen, Peyton Schraft, and a whole host of other girls that were key to our success this year. We have some really young talent that are trying to put their own stamp on the program now that they have a taste.”

In such a season as this one, with a finish as bizarre and unprecedented as any, it is easy to concern oneself with a question of, “What if?” Although, rather than focusing on how things may have been different if certain calls would have been made differently or shots would have fallen, it is more important to focus on what did happen.

All hypotheticals aside, the Moapa Valley Pirates yielded one of the best teams in school program history, and many of the players who played on that team still have one goal left to accomplish. Don’t count them out.

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