Nothing in baseball can match an ace pitcher, not even the weight of history.
GARRETT – The Garrett girls basketball team progressively got better but still couldn’t best Leo.
The Railroaders fell to the Lions for the third time this year 54-52 in overtime in the Garrett Class 3A Sectional quarterfinals Tuesday.
“They were emotionally and physically prepared to beat us,” Leo coach Carrie Shappell said. “Garrett has continuingly gotten better. The team we saw (Tuesday) was not the same team we saw in December.”
Leo (18-4) had beaten Garrett (13-7) 60-39 in December and 40-38 in January, the latter game won on a buzzer-beater.
“They are probably the better team, but we played pretty hard,” Garrett coach Bob Lapadot said. “They were able to wear us down just a little bit. We just played our best game of the year in the last game of the year. That’s all you can ask for.”
Leo will play No. 4 Angola (21-1) in the first semifinal game Friday, and No. 7 Concordia will play Woodlan in the second game. The first game between Leo and Garrett this season was close for three quarters until the Lions pulled away.
“It has become one of the biggest rivalries that we have,” Shappell said. “There were a couple of times in this game that I wasn’t sure if we could hang in there, but we did.”
The Lions opened overtime with a 7-3 burst and never looked back. The Railroaders’ Katie DePew hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Leo’s Keanna Gary, who hit the game-winner last time against Garrett, had 12 points and 16 rebounds. She had only one point at halftime.
Senior Katie Pannabecker added 12 points, freshman Jenna Beer nine and senior Kayla Woodward eight.
“They all played their hearts out,” Gary said of seniors. “Without them, this wouldn’t have been possible. They had a great game.”
Brandi Dawson led Garrett with 21 points, DePew had 14 and Jordan Knott 12.
Trailing for a majority of the first three quarters, Garrett fought back with a 10-2 run to open the fourth and lead 39-35. Dawson’s layup with 55 seconds left tied it at 44.
Garrett, which moved up from 2A this year, had won five straight sectional titles and had been in the sectional championship game every year since 2000.
“We proved that we could compete in 3A,” Lapadot said. “That was a big question mark. We proved we could keep our tradition going. Maybe not if you measure in trophies, but definitely if you measure in heart and desire.”
