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| Hannah Nicola looks to dribble as she is guarded by Bella Walchalk of Lake. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com) |
MASSILLON, Ohio - A huge buzzer-beater 3-point shot sends the Lady Tigers to 10-3 on the season.
For Massillon, following a victory against Canton Central Catholic just two nights prior, facing an eight-win Lake Blue Streaks team would be challenging. "We came out flat. We played a great game Wednesday against a great Central team, and we knew Lake was going to come in and compete against us," said Pierce, head coach of the Lady Tigers.
The Tigers started off a bit sluggish in the first quarter, trailing 6-0 due to a couple of three-pointers made by Savannah Horning and Audrey Goebelt of Lake. They would not score until 5:06 of the quarter.
Hannah Nicola would rally with five straight points, and Delaney Pierce would tie the game up 8-8 with a 3-point shot. Jaryn Wolff would add to the run, knocking down back-to-back three-point shots. This would put Massillon up 14-8 with 1:48 to go. Lake would answer, but would still trail 16-11 at the end of the period.
As the second quarter continued, Massillon began to lose some of its momentum towards the end of the period, permitting Lake to get back into the game after leading much of the quarter, resulting in a tie at 28-28 as they approached halftime.
Massillon would come out aggressive in the third period, with Delaney Pierce leading the way, keeping the Tigers just ahead. The Blue Streaks would have a big third quarter, thanks to Hayden Croyle, who scored 12 points to add to her 11 points in the first half.
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| Lake's Hayden Croyle looks to make a move as Kynslie Williams guards her intensely. Croyle finished the game with 27 points. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com) |
The game would start to get more physical, and a scary moment occurred when Pierce went down from a Croyle elbow as she was backing her down towards the paint. Pierce would go down and exit into the locker room with 2:57 left of the third period, with blood coming from the mouth area. Massillon would lead 51-49 at the end of the quarter.
"So I went down in the third quarter, I remember my teammate came running to me, dad came over, the athletic trainer came over, I fell down pretty hard, but I think that was it was a little bit of adversity, you know," elaborated Delaney Pierce.
The reliable Nicola would lead the Tigers with 12 points in the third quarter out of a total of 23, amidst Pierce's absence. Meanwhile. Lake would have Goebelt, along with scores from Josef and Croyle, which would help them maintain throughout the quarter.
Pierce would re-enter the game with 16.9 seconds left in the third.
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| Delaney Pierce takes a three-point shot over the defending Hayden Croyle in the first quarter. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com) |
Entering the fourth period, it would be the Delaney Pierce show as this would be her most productive quarter of the game, scoring 10 of her 22 total points at this time. Lake would use a team attack to stay close in the game, with four of the five on the floor scoring the ball.
With the game tied up 65-65 with just about two minutes left in the game, after the tie neither could get the ball to go in, and a late foul called on Lake put the ball at the baseline for Massillon with just 7.5 seconds remaining in the game with Nicola inbounding the ball, she passes it out to Pierce, she dribbles it to the three point line and turns and hands it off to Nicola and she takes the deep three and walks off a 68-65 victory.
"It was just my teammate [Pierce] had the ball, we normally go to her for everything, but when I was open, I shot it, and it was good," said Nicola. "It was scary, but I've done it before, so I'm comfortable in late game situations, you just gotta stay calm."
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| Delaney Pierce takes a shot over the outstretched Savannah Horning. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com) |
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