Trailing Sherman 41-38 with 19.8 seconds the Cardinals gained possession with a chance to tie. Randolph came out of its timeout and executed the play drawn up perfectly with Skylar Herington finishing a corner trey to tie the nonleague game 41-41 with 12 seconds left.

A Sherman timeout advanced the ball to half-court, but it would be Randolph to get the final possession as its tenacious defense forced another turnover with just seven seconds left.

This time, the Randolph game plan didn’t work out, but that didn’t matter to Kyra Pence. As the play broke down, Pence drove to the basket and lofted up a shot which missed, she fought for her own rebound and hurled it back up just in enough time to beat the buzzer and steal the game from the Wildcats 43-41.

“The Skylar shot the girls executed perfect,” Randolph head coach David Pihlblad said about the end of the game. “That’s what we were looking for, that shot in the corner. The last play of the game, Kyra’s, the play fell apart. Kyra just kind of ad-libbed and somehow, some way got that second shot to fall.”

Randolph’s Skylar Herington (23) attempts to get by Sherman’s Leighanne Swan during Tuesday’s nonleague game in Randolph. Photo by Mike Frame

After a strong offensive first quarter from both sides, the shooting from Randolph (7-4, 3-0 CCAA D1 West) fell off as Sherman made it difficult to penetrate the interior, forcing tough outside shots. Randolph maintained its strong on-ball defense all the way through its full-court press, but in the early going Sherman was finding ways to finish its shots.

Just as Sherman (7-4, 5-1 CCAA D2 West) made it difficult to drive the basket and score in close, Randolph did the same, but Sherman’s trio of Paige Gratto, Kelsey Wagner and Hayden Fisher were locked in from downtown. Both Gratto and Wagner hit three treys and Fisher had two of them, while Randolph had just five with Payton Morrison making three.

“We have some shooters who kind of forgot they’re shooters for a little while,” Sherman head coach Emily Eckwahl stated. “It was really nice to see them get their feet under them and have the confidence in the shot that we saw towards the end of last year.”

Sherman’s strong play in the paint also resulted in great rebounding efforts, led by Leighanne Swan with nine, Tayden Persons collected seven, Gratto grabbed six and Fisher had four for a team total of 28.

“Our posts are really figuring out their rotation,” Eckwahl stated. “Tayden Persons has stepped in to fill one of our graduate’s role defensively and she is really finding her footing with the help of Leighanne Swan coaching her down there.”

Randolph’s rebounding effort was led by Pence and Morrison with seven each and Katelyn Storer grabbed four.

As the game wore on, the full-court press from Randolph really began to take its toll on the Wildcats. While it generated turnovers all game, in the fourth quarter its effect was really on display when Randolph made its comeback. Benefitting most from the press was Quinn Pence, who had seven steals and Kyra Pence and Morrison, who had four.

“We want to press,” Pihlblad said about his team’s defense. “We’re going to try and press the whole game. We’re starting to get in shape, finally getting everybody healthy. We didn’t sub a lot and our girls ran a lot. They kept going at the end. I thought they were going to run out of gas and they had just enough in the tank.”

With perfect timing, the press wearing on Sherman and shots beginning to fall, Randolph made its comeback in the fourth. The Cardinals had their best offensive quarter as Kyra Pence and Herington scored 8 and 9 points resepectively, including the biggest shots of the night to secure the comeback in an 18-point quarter.

“Last year we had a couple games in the playoffs in the same situation,” Pihlblad said about coming from behind. “We screwed up a few times last year, against Frewsburg we lost that game. Coming back with our same starting five, these girls are experienced. They settled into the game, they were composed and Skylar hit a big shot and Kyra hit a big shot when it counted.”

SHERMAN (41)

Bates 0 0 0, Persons 1 0 2, PGratto 3 0 9, Wagner 5 0 13, TGratto 1 0 2, Swan 2 0 4, Martin 0 0 0, Fisher 4 1 11. Totals 16 1 41.

RANDOLPH (43)

KPence 6 0 13, QPence 0 0 0, Storer 3 0 6, Steward 0 0 0, Morrison 4 0 11, Herington 5 0 11, Dickerson 0 2 2. Totals 18 2 43.

3-point goals–PGratto 3, Wagner 3, Morrison 3, Fisher 2, KPence, Herington.

Sherman 12 10 11 8 — 41

Randolph 14 2 9 18 — 43