Islanders Seize 19th Win in Overtime Battle with Raiders

In the final two seconds of overtime, the girls basketball team pulled out a 49-48 victory over Shea High School's visiting team Friday night.

Undefeated teams can almost always expect their opponents to put on the pressure. They'll take chances they normally wouldn't. They'll "throw the kitchen sink" at you. No more was this the case than on Friday night as Middletown's undefeated girls basketball team hosted Shea in front of the capacity crowd that's closely following the Islanders' undefeated season.

Shea's intensity came fast and furious. Middletown remained poised early on, but neither team lit the scoreboard up offensively. In fact, after ten minutes had gone by in the first half, the score was only 8-6, with the Islanders holding the slight edge.

Shea tied it at 8, but saw Middletown score back-to-back buckets to take the lead back, with the score at 12-8 and 4 minutes remaining in the half.

The battle for loose balls resulted in bodies hitting the floor and some hard fouls.

The Islanders have seen it before this season. Teams that play hard try to set "traps" like hard fouls and some trash talking in hopes of forcing Middletown to commit careless turnovers or unnecessary fouls. Previously, Middletown had rarely fallen for it. However on Friday night, they began to fall prey.  

A game of back-and-forth ensued between the two teams. With three minutes to play in the half, the score was tied at 13 until #10 from Shea was fouled and hit both free throws to put her team up 19-18 with 1:10 to play in the first half.

Middletown was behind but their next offensive possession proved their mettle. Senior Taylor O'Malley battled underneath with several Shea defenders and eventually put the ball in off the backboard to take the lead back from Shea, 20-19. 

With only seconds left before halftime, senior and co-captain brought the ball across half court, squared up, and fired a three-pointer which swished through as the buzzer sounded. 

The crowd went nuts as Middletown took a 23-19 lead into halftime.

Second Half

In the second half, Shea came out of the locker room to rip off 10 unanswered points to seize the lead, 29-23.

For the first time in a long time, Middletown seemed a little stunned, out of sync. Coach Mike Yates called a time-out to settle his team down. They had begun to play into the hands of the visiting Shea team.

Middletown came out focused to cut the Shea lead to two points, but an epic game of back-and-forth followed after that.

Shea took a four-point lead with five minutes remaining. Instead of cheering like they just won the national title, they should have guarded Middletown's #32 , who hit a jumper, then stole the ball and nailed a three-pointer to give her team the lead once again.  

Shea hit a free throw to tie it up at 40 with two minutes remaining, but #31 Kirsten Perry pulled up and demonstrated the definition of a "clutch" shot. Her jump shot put the Islanders ahead 42-41 with only 9.8 seconds to play in the game.

Middletown then committed a very costly foul that lost them three key players with only seconds to play. It gave Shea a chance to win the game at the foul line.  The first free throw was good. The second was not.

The game was tied at 42 as the buzzer sounded.

Overtime

Four minutes was put on the clock and the ball was tossed into the air.  The play mirrored the early first half with little offense over the first two minutes of overtime.

Shea held a narrow lead of 44-43, with 2:10 to go.

Middletown was now without three key players who had fouled out, among them #22 Chelsea Dowler, and #55 Michalea Conley.  

Shea hit a three-pointer, followed by a bucket underneath and took a five-point lead, up 48-43 with 1:47 to go in overtime.

Co-captain hit back-to-back shots to cut the Shea lead to one point with 39.2 seconds remaining.  

Shea inbounded the ball but turned it over.  Seconds ticked by as Middletown reeled the ball in and called a timeout.  

The Islanders came out of the timeout and got set to inbound the ball.

The score was 48-47.  Shea was in the lead. 8.2 seconds remained.

Middletown inbounded the ball, the pass went to #32 Lauren Paiva, who rolled out and fired up a jumper that sank through the net with only two seconds left.

The packed Middletown gym exploded with cheers.

Shea inbounded the ball but couldn't score.  

The unbeaten season stays alive. The final score was 49-48.

Post Game

The fans in the bleachers rushed the court along with the Middletown bench for the celebration at center court, as the Islanders shook hands with the Shea Raiders, who had given them the biggest scare of the year so far.

I asked co-captain , who sank the game-winning jumper, if they had drawn that play up, or if it just unfolded naturally.

"It's funny because I was practicing that same move to the outside and that exact shot all day at practice. I'm glad I made it," Paiva said.

I asked Coach Mike Yates how it felt to win this game.

"I'm glad it's over," Yates said with a smile, adding, "We know every team is going to come gunning for us now, they all want to knock off the undefeated team. Shea came out ready to do that. We had a plan of our own and the girls executed it. I knew Shea was going to come in here like this and we practiced that all week. Now we've got another big game on Tuesday against Bishop Keough."

The Islanders remain undefeated on the year at 19-0 overall. They will attempt to keep it going when Bishop Keough visits them on Tuesday. The tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Check back on Patch to see if the ride continues.