Mt. Carmel, Ill. – The Wabash Valley College women's basketball team dodged a bullet on Saturday.
The Warriors were clinging to a 57-55 lead with just 17 seconds remaining, but it was Lake Land who had the ball and the last chance to win.
Looking for a 3-point field goal was the obvious call, and why not? The Lakers had already drilled buzzer-beater 3-balls to take a one-point lead at halftime, as well as the end of the third period.
However, this time, there would be no shot. The Lakers threw the ball out of bounds with 11 seconds left. Two Warrior free throws and a last-second layup followed, and 17th-ranked WVC had prevailed, 61-55, in a Great Rivers Athletic Conference game at Spencer Sports Center.
It was the league opener for the Warriors (3-1, 1-0 in GRAC), who have now stretched their 71-game conference winning streak into parts of a fifth season.
Lake Land (30-3 last year with two of those losses at the hands of WVC) fell to 3-1 (3-1) with the loss.
"They are a really good team. They're going to win a lot of games," said Warrior coach Luke Scheidecker of the 12th-ranked (Division II) Lakers.
"I'm proud of our effort. We showed a lot of grit defensively with such a young team. We played that whole game with all freshman, except for Jazmyn Turner."
As it turns out, the winning basket came from guard Kiki Carney who drilled a 3-pointer from high on the left side with 1:25 remaining to put WVC ahead for good, 57-55.
"That was huge. Kiki made a big play. But that is what good players do. They get an opportunity like that, they capitalize on that," Scheidecker said.
And what about Turner? All she did was score 27 points to lead the Warrior attack. She was also 11-of-11 at the foul line, including those two late free throws following the Laker turnover that put the game out of reach.
"Pretty impressive," Scheidecker said. "They doubled, tripled, even had four people on her at times. She just enforced her will.
"Jaz did what Jaz does."
WVC had to deal with the early loss of Je'Naiyah Davis, who suffered an apparent ankle injury. Though she spent the remainder of the game on the sidelines stretching and exercising, Davis did not return to action.
Davis began the day as the leading scorer in the GRAC, at 22.3 points per game, but went scoreless in the game.
Carney added 13 for the winners.
Abby Weis, who entered as the second-leading scorer in the GRAC, led Lake Land with 18 points. Kamaria Gant added 12.
Wabash Valley wraps up its' longest home stand of the year on Monday night against Shawnee (0-2, 0-1) in the first game of a GRAC doubleheader. Tipoff time is 5:30 p.m.
Then on Wednesday, the Warriors hit the road for Peoria and a game at Illinois Central (1-0), ranked ninth in the latest NJCAA Division II poll.