Woodgrove girls basketball head coach Travis Coon urged his team to play relentless defense as they trailed the Stone Bridge girls basketball team 33-27 with five minutes left in the game. His call began to pay off as the Wolverines went on a 5-0 run in the final minutes that was capped by freshman forward Ashley Steadman drilling a clutch three-pointer that tied the game at 33.
The Bulldogs responded with a basket from sophomore center Sarah O’Day to retake the lead with 50 seconds left, but again Woodgrove rallied back with an and-one lay in from junior forward Olivia Rosick that tied the game at 35 after failing to convert the free throw. The Bulldogs took the ball down the court with 14 seconds left and eventually found themselves inbounding the ball with just a few seconds left on the clock.
An initial shot bounced off the rim towards sophomore guard Audrey Cowden who then immediately put up a shot from the foul line that swished through the net as the buzzer sounded, giving the Bulldogs a 37-35 win in their opening game of the season.
Audrey Cowden sinks a buzzer beating shot to clinch a 37-35 win for the Bulldogs over the Wolverines in their season opener. @novahoopsCom @SBHSgirlsbball pic.twitter.com/ekwPsnCqHn
— TJ_Davis (@Ttown316) November 30, 2018
Stone Bridge girls basketball head coach Kyle Linder was proud of his team for being able to handle the adversity despite few players having varsity experience.
“A lot of these girls it’s their first time playing varsity – we lost our true leading scorers from last year, one through graduation and one through transfer,” Linder said. “I just thought that they showed a lot of maturity in a tight game for it being their first game in varsity.”
Linder also explained that he was happy with the collective effort of the team in their first game of the season.
“We know that we’re not going to have anybody that’s going to walk out and score 15-20 points, but we have a lot of people that are going to throw in two, five, eight, whatever. Just seeing the (girls) come together and win as a team meant a lot,” Linder said.
Cowden led the way for the Bulldogs (1-0) with nine points, while Steadman paced the Wolverines (0-2) with nine points.
–TJ Davis