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Westfield's Carly Drew tries to split the defense of La Crosse Aquinas' Shea Bahr, left, and Bailey Theusch during last season's WIAA Division 3 state semifinal game at Menominee Nation Arena in Oshkosh. Drew buried the game-winning, buzzer-beater in Saturday's 41-38 win over Bonduel to send the Pioneers back to state for the second straight year.
WAUPACA — As contrived as it may be, any strong 3-point shooter will tell you, the best mentality to have after a miss is “to move onto the next one.”
Carly Drew had no other choice Saturday afternoon.
With the game tied at 38 and just 1.2 seconds left, the Westfield sophomore let go a right-handed 30-foot heave and found nothing but net, sending the top-seeded Pioneers back to the state for the second straight year with a 41-38 win over No. 3 Bonduel in a WIAA Division 4 high school girls basketball sectional final at Waupaca High School.
Drew’s heroics helped power the Pioneers, who received the No. 4 seed, back to the big dance where they’ll meet top-seeded Mineral Point in a state semifinal at 6:35 p.m. Thursday at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
“It feels amazing to be part of a team like this, and to hit the game-winning shot to send us to state,” Drew said.
The Pioneers (27-1) went to Drew just seconds earlier on another potential game-winner with five seconds left to play, but her straight-on look was blocked by Bonduel senior Kylie Hoffman. The Bears (23-5) couldn’t save the ball from going out of bounds though, giving Westfield coach Luke Showen a chance to call timeout and draw up one final look before potentially going to overtime.
“I don’t think that bothers Carly one bit. If she misses a shot or has one blocked … she can forget about it and move on, and she definitely did that,” Showen said.
That she did, eventhough what transpired after wasn’t exactly how the Pioneers scripted things. Drew wasn’t the primary option on the in-bounds play, but needing to avoid a five-second violation, Nadia Hoffa hit her on a bounce pass deep behind the 3-point line.
Drew took one dribble to set herself and before time expired, unloaded a leaping right-handed shot that tickled nothing but twine to send the Pioneers into pandemonium.
Showen and Drew said the initial plan was to get a lob pass to freshman Haddie Showen, with Drew curling to the near corner off a pair of screens. But when neither plan came to fruition, Hoffa found Drew, cutting back to the deep right wing, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Carly caught it a lot deeper than we wanted, but she took a step back dribble and at first I was like ‘Alright, she got off a shot.’ I was happy to see her get it off … and when I saw it coming out of her hand I was like ‘It’s flat; it’s gonna be short or off,’ but it went through the hoop,” Luke Showen said.
“After a second I had to realize what happened, put my hands up and the girls were rushing the floor. It was obviously a short sequence, but kind of a long sequence in the same aspect.”
Luke Showen wasn’t surprise at the fact Drew made the shot as “she has a variety of ways to get shots off,” but the fashion in which the Pioneers came out on top may have been more unsuspecting given their hot start.
Things didn’t look in doubt early as Westfield seized a 14-4 lead with just under 12 until the break following a Drew 3-pointer. The Pioneers, who never trailed, led 20-13 at the break and ultimately stretched their lead to as many as 11 twice, the second coming at 28-17 with 14 minutes to go after two Drew free throws.
Bonduel never folded though and the Bears, after pulling within 28-24, ultimately tied things at 38 after senior Allaina Robaidek saw her runner with 37.6 seconds left in regulation narrowly creep over the front edge of the rim and down.
In the end it was Drew’s heroics that carried the day, but things could have gone much differently had Bonduel made good on its chances before the miracle winner. The Bears had two chances prior to take their first lead of the game in the waning minutes but came up empty on both attempts.
A 3-pointer by Robaidek swirled around the rim before coming out with 3:10 remaining, a minute before sophomore Ella Hischke’s would-be game-tying layup fell off the rim.
Senior Abbie Aalsma caught fire after halftime to help the Warriors outlast the Indians. Elsewhere, the Rockets and Pioneers both won convincingly to move within a game of state.
It’s the second straight postseason the Pioneers have topped Bonduel after they pulled away for a 55-39 win in last season’s Div. 3 sectional semifinal. Now the Pioneers will get the chance to improve on their state semifinal loss last winter to eventual runner-up La Crosse Aquinas.
Entering this season with nearly an unchanged team, a second straight chance to play at state was certainly in the minds of Drew and Pioneers. Now that premonition is reality.
“I think we did (have a chance),” Drew said of the idea to return to state. “because when we play together, we’re super strong and know each other’s responsibilities. I think we’re super strong together and we all knew that, we just had to believe in each other.”
Wisconsin Dells' Hailey Anchorn was a unanimous first team All-South Central Conference choice this year.
Follow Sean Davis on Twitter @SDavis_PDR or contact him at 608-745-3512.
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Sophomore Carly Drew buried a 30-foot shot with 1.2 seconds remaining to propel the Pioneers to a 41-38 win over Bonduel in a WIAA Division 4 …
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Westfield's Carly Drew tries to split the defense of La Crosse Aquinas' Shea Bahr, left, and Bailey Theusch during last season's WIAA Division 3 state semifinal game at Menominee Nation Arena in Oshkosh. Drew buried the game-winning, buzzer-beater in Saturday's 41-38 win over Bonduel to send the Pioneers back to state for the second straight year.
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