By: Ashlee Mullis
Last Thursday night in the Cougar Den, there were several heroes dressed in white jerseys. For a couple of these heroes, it was the last time they ever played on the court.
The four seniors on the squad ended their basketball career at Patrick County with an impressive 27 home game winning streak. The game resembled a tennis match a majority of the time, bouncing the lead back and forth. It is no doubt that everyone in attendance got their $5 worth and more. With 1 minute and 21 seconds left in the first half, the score was tied at 30-30. At halftime, Northside was ahead 34-33. The Lady Cougars came out of the locker room fired up, going on to an 8-0 run. With four minutes left in the third, Patrick County had taken back the lead, 47-41. Heading into the fourth, the Cougars had a narrow 51-50 lead, but quickly fell behind. Izzy Beasley hit a huge 3 to even it up, 54-54. With 3 minutes and 8 seconds left in the game, Northside was leading 63-31, when PC’s defensive beast, Sierra Hubbard, who scored 10 points in the game and had 11 rebounds, picked up her fifth foul and had to head to the bench. The Lady Vikings turned up the heat, and were up 68-64 with 1 minute 27 seconds left in the game. Beasley and Linsdey Marshall did what they have done all year and stepped up to carry the team. Marshall was fouled twice, making all of her foul shots to make the score 69-69. With only a few seconds left on the clock, Beasley drove hard to the basket, where she tripped and was kicked in the face as she fell. After taking a minute to pull herself together, she got up and walked off the floor. Cue the heroics and clear thinking of a couple of underclassmen. With a second left on the clock, Northside had the ball under Patrick County’s basket. As everyone in the Cougar Den chanted, “Let’s Go Cougars”, freshman Suzanne Gonzales pounded the inbound pass right back into the hands of the Lady Viking, who was still out of bounds, giving the possession to the Cougars. “Coach Rakes told me to guard the person inbounding the ball. I didn’t know I would touch anything. All I did was try my hardest and not let it happen so easily. I heard and felt a loud smack, so I knew I must have done something good,” Gonzales said. On the inbound play, Marshall lobbed the ball to sophomore Abby Dillon, who went straight up for the shot and was fouled on the play. The Cougar Den went crazy as Dillon stepped to the line. The first shot missed, but the second shot was nothing but net, giving the Lady Cougars the 70-69 win. “Coach called a time-out and said, ‘Abby, we’re going to you.’ I was extremely nervous, but I knew I had to step up. When I missed the first foul shot, I started getting really nervous. When the second one went in, I was extremely happy,” Dillon said.
“What a game. First and foremost, a big shout-out to our crowd. We had a full house that was extremely loud and supportive. Northside has an incredible player in Tracy Hueston, a D-1 recruit, who scored an incredible 45 points. Our kids battled their butts off. We made runs, they made runs. It was just a great high school basketball game in a great atmosphere. Lindsey and Izzy literally put us on their backs in the fourth quarter with 18 points. They just refused to lose. Suzanne Gonzales made the play of the game with 1.6 seconds to play. She, while defending the out of bounds play, knocked the ball off the defender to give us the ball. Then with a second to go, we lobbed the ball to Abby, who was fouled. What pressure to hit a free throw with .1 second to go. So proud of her. I loved that our seniors won their last game on this court. That makes 27 straight home games that group has won in the last two years. What a Game,” Rakes said.