JOPLIN, Mo. - 5th-seed Iowa Western Women's Basketball defeated the 3rd-seed Rock Valley Golden Eagles 66-63 in a thrilling finish.
The Reivers (33-3) got out to a fast start, opening up the contest with 6 unanswered points but Rock Valley (34-2) clawed their way back, eventually taking a 13-12 lead after the first period of play. IW regained the lead 17-15 just 47 seconds in to the 2nd quarter, eventually stretching it into a 10 point advantage, 36-26, at the halftime break. Sophomore Guard Shannon Niles dropped 13 of her team high 19 points in the first half to go along with 4 rebounds. Sophomore Forward Caleigh-Rose West grabbed four of her 9 rebounds in the first half, and her 283rd of the year, breaking the all-time school record for rebounds in a season set by Negesti Taylor in 2008-09.
The Reivers would hold their lead for much of the 3rd and 4th quarters but the Golden Eagles climbed all the way back, eventually taking the lead with 3:37 left in the game on a three-pointer from Jasmyn Hale to give Rock Valley a 59-58 advantage. Sophomore Guard McKenna Minter knocked down a pair of free throws to put the IWCC back in front, Rock Valley answered with a jumpshot and a pair of free throws from Maya Mitchell to push their lead to 3, 63-60 with 1:24 remaining.
With the Reivers needing a basket and inbounding the ball underneath the Golden Eagles hoop, Niles found Minter in the far corner and she drove into the paint to her right side and layed it up and in to get the and-one bucket with 48.1 seconds left in the game.
Minter, a 75% free throw shooter missed the opportunity to tie the game off of the right side of the rim but Rock Valley on their ensuing possession, were called for an illegal screen by Mitchell and Iowa Western would take over with 26.1 seconds left. IW would almost turn the ball back over to Rock Valley as they couldn't secure the inbounds pass cleanly but fortunately a jump ball was called and IWCC retained possession.
Alindria Dudley used the pick-and-roll with West and lobbed it into the paint where the sophmore drew the shooting foul. West calmly knocked down both free throws to give the Reivers a 64-63 lead with 13.5 seconds remaining.
Rock Valley called a timeout to advance the ball past midcourt, and drew up a play for their leading scorer Mitchell as she was double-teamed immediately upon catching the ball at the block. Mitchell started to fall down with the pressure but got off a pass to her teammate McKenna Williams who put up the shot that went over the right side to the left side of the rim into the hands of Hale who put it back up but her shot hit off of the bottom of the rim and fell into the hands of Niles who secured the rebound and was fouled.
Niles hit both free throws to make it a 66-63 lead with just 3.1 seconds to go. Rock Valley called their last timeout to moved the ball past the timeline once more. Hale inbounded to her teammate who passed it back to her immediately and got off an open look but her shot was too strong off of the glass as Iowa Western survived 66-63 to move into the finals of the 5th place game.
Despite being outrebounded 34-21 in the 2nd half with the Golden Eagles securing 19 offensive boards that led to 18 second chance points, Iowa Western was able to win their closest game of the season since a 70-65 victory in overtime at Southwestern CC on January 27th.
Shannon Niles ended her day with 19 points and 6 rebounds while Minter finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Caleigh-Rose West and her 9 rebounds, extended her school record to 287 boards on the year.
Iowa Western will move into the finals of the 5th place bracket and will face the winner of Lincoln Land (IL) and Morton (IL) tomorrow at 2:00 pm.
