Minford junior Maggie Risner (1) scored a game-high 19 points and hit the game-winning shot in the Lady Falcons’ 39-37 victory over West on Thursday night in Southern Ohio Conference Division III girls basketball action.

Courtesy of Joey Shupert

MINFORD — Minford’s Maggie Risner rose to the occasion, time and again, on Thursday night.

She reached her highest point, no doubt, on the Lady Falcons’ —and the game’s —final shot.

That’s because the junior Risner, taking the basketball on a handoff just outside the lane, raced inside the paint area and launched the game-winning shot —as she indeed beat the buzzer for the Lady Falcons’ thrilling 39-37 Southern Ohio Conference Division III victory over West, in a key conference clash at the Falcons’ Nest.

With that game-winner, not only did the Lady Falcons win the proverbial SOC III war with the Lady Senators, Risner got the best of the last individual battle —against West standout senior Emma Sayre.

Sayre sank a pair of free throws with 20 seconds remaining —making her a perfect 10-of-10 at the line on the game, and more importantly making the Lady Senators deadlocked with the Lady Falcons at 37-37.

That was the game’s third tie —aside from a first-quarter 8-8 score, and the 16-16 halftime stalemate.

But in the final 20 seconds, the Lady Falcons first found Risner in the corner —with a possible 1-on-1 situation driving to the basket if she wanted it.

But Risner passed to Minford sole senior Kynedi Davis, who then found Lexi Conkel, who gave to Risner right outside the elbow of the free-throw line.

Risner went hard towards the basket, put it up and got it to go, as she was immediately mobbed her Minford teammates —but perhaps even more quickly by the Falcons’ boys basketball team, which consisted of the majority of the Minford cheer block on Thursday.

It was quite the wild celebration at the Falcons’ Nest for the junior-laden Lady Falcons, which raised their record to 9-3 —and remained undefeated in the first-year SOC III at 3-0.

West, which won its first-ever SOC championship last season when the conference was in its final season of only two divisions, fell to 10-3 —and to 2-1 in the SOC III.

For Risner, her game-winner cemented her game-high 19 points on seven field goals and 5-of-6 free throws —including nine fourth-quarter points, and 13 total in the second 16 minutes.

Of course, none were bigger than her final two points in the final seconds —as Minford withstood a defensive rockfight with West, similar to the Lady Falcons’ 45-42 win over South Webster on Monday night, and a 38-35 non-league victory against Division II Jackson on Dec. 28.

Minford junior Lexi Conkel (11) and West senior Emma Sayre (21) scramble for a loose ball during Thursday night’s Southern Ohio Conference Division III girls basketball game at Minford High School.

Courtesy of Joey Shupert

There were eight lead changes along with the three ties, as Minford second-year head coach Chuck Miller described the ultimate tiebreaker — and game-winning shot by Risner.

Remember, Risner registered half of the Lady Falcons’ 39 points —including a first-half buzzer-beater that resulted in the 16-16 tie.

“We were setting a 1-4 low set for Maggie, which we call it ‘Gray’, and she just takes the ball to the hole. The Maggie Risner we saw tonight is the aggressive Maggie Risner we saw all summer. When she does that, we’re a totally different offensive team,” said Miller. “She is 5-10, she is so athletic and so long. When she goes to the basket like she did tonight, she is so hard to guard. That’s what we wanted with that last set. They defended it well, but she got the ball back and she took and made a tough shot. I’m so proud of her. Maggie is so tough on herself, she is a perfectionist. This is the type of game that she needs to hopefully springboard her into what we need her to be.”

Speaking of tough shots, West second-year head coach Larry Howell said his Lady Senators forced one of those from Risner —but she made it.

“With 20 seconds left and we need a defensive stop, we tell our girls all the time that we should be able to lock up man-to-man and play hard for that long and make them take a tough shot. I thought we did that, but she just made it,” said Howell.

But Risner, just as Jackson’s and John Glenn’s top scorers did to the Lady Senators in their only other losses this season, reigned West inward —and had her way with racking up points.

“We didn’t do a good job on Risner. We let her get to her spots and let her get going downhill with her right hand, which she likes to do. It wasn’t that it wasn’t in the gameplan, we just didn’t execute it,” said Howell. “We’ve really struggled this year with taking the opponents’ best player out of the game and forcing them to take shots we want them to take. Not shots they can make.”

The Lady Senators’ shots didn’t fall for the most part —against a solid defensive Minford unit.

Sayre scored 15, but all 10 of her free throws came in the second half —as she constantly drove to the basket and drew contact.

However, her only made field goals came in the second stanza —on a two-point drive for the 8-8 tie, and her only three-pointer for a 13-12 West lead with a minute and 25 seconds remaining.

The Lady Senators shot 11-of-40 for 27-and-a-half percent from the field, and an even colder 4-of-18 from three-point territory.

No other West player scored more than seven, as that was freshman Macey Whisman — with two twos and a second-quarter three.

Haley Carver canned a trifecta for a 5-4 West lead, and Kamryn Spriggs splashed one from the wing to make it 21-19 in favor of the Lady Senators midway through the third.

West senior Kamryn Spriggs (15) goes up for a shot during the Lady Senators’ Southern Ohio Conference Division III girls basketball game at Minford on Thursday night.

Courtesy of Joey Shupert

But the Lady Falcons limiting the Lady Senators to as many made field goals (11) as they made foul shots was critical.

In such a possession-by-possession contest, Minford outscored West 17-10 in the final nine minutes and 34 seconds —with six-foot four-inch junior Lindsee Williams tallying 10 points on five field goals.

“We thought if we could get to 40 points or more, we should be okay,” said Howell. “But it’s pretty hard to win against them, because they are such a good defensive team and they rebound the basketball and they make shots when they need to.”

Minford’s largest lead stood at 4-0 only two minutes and 28 seconds in, as West opened up third-frame advantages of 25-20 and 27-22.

But the Lady Falcons are a proven commodity with being second-half hard chargers.

Minford junior Lindsee Williams (15) attempts to block the shot of West senior Emily Moore (23) during Thursday night’s Southern Ohio Conference Division III girls basketball game at Minford High School.

Courtesy of Joey Shupert

“We knew going in you’ve got two teams that are better on the defensive end We went man-to-man first then went to zone later on. But the thing about it is that we are a second-half team. We get down in the second half, they make a spurt, we answer and we come back,” said Miller.

That the Lady Falcons did, going on an 11-4 run to erase the 27-22 deficit — and stake their final lead on Conkel’s corner-pocket three-ball.

In fact, that was Conkel’s only field goal — and occurred with two-and-a-half minutes left to play.

“Lexi hasn’t been shooting the ball as well lately, but good shooters shoot. That’s what they do, and all it takes is one shot like that,” said Miller. “We do struggle to score and we don’t shoot the ball well, but Lexi is one of our more consistent shooters, and she has to keep putting them up whether she’s making them or not.”

From there, Risner made 3-of-4 from the stripe just 20 seconds apart —and Conkel split a pair of freebies for a 37-35 lead with 28 seconds showing.

That set Sayre up for her game-tying free throws, and eventually for Risner with her game-winning basket.

West is 35-5 in its first 40 games under Howell —with Thursday night’s defeat being just the second true road loss in a year-and-a-half.

The other was a 55-49 setback at Waverly, which was the Lady Senators’ only SOC defeat all year.

West lost to arch-nemesis Wheelersburg in the Division III Region 11 championship tilt, and the losses to Jackson and John Glenn are against quality Division II teams —on neutral floors.

However, Howell had hoped his Lady Senators could have taken “better” shots against the Lady Falcons.

“When you’re playing good basketball teams, it’s going to be back-and-forth. Playing here at Minford is going to be a tough atmosphere, and we knew it was going to be a knockdown drag-out defensive game,” said the coach. “We would have liked to make more shots, and I would have liked for us to take some better shots. I thought we took some bad shots when we had that five-point lead in the third quarter. But I am proud of the way we fought. We just have to get better and clean some things up. We had plenty of chances, but offensive rebounds we don’t finish and we missed some free throws. You play good teams, you can’t make those mistakes.”

For the Lady Falcons, with Risner rising up and lifting Minford with the winner, the triumph was just as much relief —given the results with West from last season.

The two will rematch at West in a dozen days from now (Monday, Jan. 29).

“Our league is very balanced. This is a great win for us, especially since last year we battled them (Lady Senators) so hard, and we were 0-for-3 against them,” said Miller. “It’s good to get one over them.”

* * *

West 5 11 11 10 — 37

Minford 6 10 8 15 —39

WEST 37 (10-3, 2-1 SOC III)

Macey Whisman 3 0-1 7, Adi Stephens 0 0-0 0, Kate Rollins 1 0-1 2, Kamryn Spriggs 2 0-0 5, Emma Sayre 2 10-10 15, Haley Carver 1 0-2 3, Emily Moore 2 1-2 5; TOTALS 11 11-16 37; Three-point goals: 4 (Macey Whisman, Kamryn Spriggs, Emma Sayre and Haley Carver 1 apiece)

MINFORD 39 (9-3, 3-0 SOC III)

Lexi Pendleton 0 0-0 0, Maggie Risner 7 5-6 19, Baylee Hammonds 0 0-0 0, Kynedi Davis 1 0-0 2, Lexi Conkel 1 1-2 4, Lindsee Williams 5 0-2 10, Marlee Pendleton 1 2-4 4, Lainey Howard 0 0-0 0; TOTALS 15 8-14 39; Three-point goals: 1 (Lexi Conkel 1)

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved