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Show Girls beat Springville in 2 01 Neil K. Warner The American Fork girls basketball team just refused to lose Friday night at Payson, overcoming a deficit during regulation and surging ahead in the second overtime to capture a 43-39 victory over Springville. At the end of regulation, Red Devil McCall Radford made one of two free throws with sixth-tenths of a second sec-ond left to send the game into overtime. At the end of the first overtime, it was Springville's Jessica Brad ft .3 The Cavemen finally took over the game to get the win. Girls leave Beky Beaton There was no sign of weary legs from the previous previ-ous night's double-overtime win when the American Fork girls basketball team took the court at Orem for a play-in game against Lone Peak. The Cavemen competed with energy in front of a moderate but very vocal crowd, leading much of the first half and staying close until the end, but the Knights finally prevailed 49-44 Saturday evening. A putback basket by American Fork's Kaili Bennion Ben-nion with 33 seconds left drew her team within four. Caveman Kaili Bennion goes f I f i At V ----- Ill , IjrM " ford who sank a 10-foot jumper to send the game into a second overtime. In the second overtime, it was American Fork's multi-sport multi-sport senior and captain, Amanda Willard, who decided enough was enough. Willard hit two free throws with 1:20 left in the second overtime and one more free throw with 28 seconds left to help American Ameri-can Fork survive a wild tiebreaker game Friday night. "I love free throws because it's just wide open and I get my turn," Willard it all on the court as but Lone Peak hit enough free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win. Both teams started slowly slow-ly on the scoreboard, due mainly to good defense and perhaps a bit of playoff jitters jit-ters for both these young squads. Lone Peak scored the first two baskets, but the Cavemen tied the game with foul shots by Adrienne Schneider and Kaili Bennion. Ben-nion. A defensive board by Whitney Richins started a fast break for Schneider, and her basket gave American Ameri-can Fork a 7-5 lead at the close of the period. The Cavemen picked up IS V J Photos by Frank Bott strong to the hoop Saturday. said. "I just block everything every-thing out. We had a lot of help from other people. Our team, our bench was awe-gome, awe-gome, they were cheering for us. We've never had that before." The win gave American Fork the fourth and final playoff spot from Region 6. The Cavemen played Lone Peak at Orem High School Saturday for the final berth to Monday's state tournament tourna-ment (see separate story). "If we make one more free throw, we win that game four times," said American Fork coach Corey Clayton. "I was just real proud of the girls. To have two girls with four fouls play for 12 minutes and not get their fifth was pretty impressive. They hung together; that was just a cool win." Both teams had chances to win the game from the free throw line. Springville made just 4-of-ll free throws in the fourth quarter quar-ter and missed the front end of a one-and-one. American Fork made just l-of-4 fourth-quarter free throws and missed two free throws with nine seconds left in regulation to allow Radford to tie the game. "We couldn't put the ball in the hole through three quarters, but on our end we played great defense," Clayton Clay-ton added. "It's tough to come back two nights in a row. The Springville girls played great. They shouldn't should-n't hang their heads at all." Springville beat Spanish Fork on Thursday to earn a date with American Fork, the pace somewhat some-what late in the second quarter and used rebounding and steals to help build a 15-10 advantage at the break. Schneider hit free throws and played strong defense while Bennion had three steals in the period to help American Fork gain the advantage. The turning point came in the third quarter, when the Knights got very aggressive on both ends of the floor, hampering American Ameri-can Fork's offensive efforts while opening up more scoring scor-ing opportunities for themselves. them-selves. They took the lead halfway through the period and never gave it up. Both teams continued to play hard, but Lone Peak had the advantage on the boards in the second half and solid play from the bench put them over the top. Caveman Adrienne Schneider had probably her best all-around game of the season, scoring 17 points, including 9-of-13 from the line, and making multiple steals. Defensively, she did a fiercely efficient job on one of the Knights' top scorers, scor-ers, limiting her to a single field goal. Amanda Willard added 9 points and Bennion contributed con-tributed 7 points with at least 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Amber Sumsion, Joelle Mooney and Richins also scored for American to earn play-in opportunity Photos by Trout, Boti American Fork's Joelle Mooney, Adrienne Schneider and Amanda Willard celebrate their team's victory over Springville at Payson following double overtime. who drew a bye by winning hit a free-throw line jumper make it 24-22. Schneider a coin toss to break the three-way tie for fourth place in the region. Considering that the halftime score was just 1 2-9, 2-9, the Red Devil's nine-point lead in the third quarter looked insurmountable, but American Fork charged back in the fourth. The Caveman comeback started when Kaili Bennion year ends : 5 ' v V t.i v X - "J nrr--1 r An nn mi ihii Assistant coach Kim Cooper shares a light moment on the bench. Fork. Although the Cavemen are now done for the year, coach Corey Clayton said this is just the beginning of a brighter future for the program. "Winning those region games and playing other good teams (Timpview, Provo and Lone Peak) tough was enough to get the girls fired up," he said. "Success breeds success. "Once we started reviewing review-ing films, the girls began to build a basketball I.Q.," he added. "We're also going to use those to help each girl individualize her off-season training program. "Working on our approach to the game has helped give the girls a lot more confidence in the game plan and each other," he concluded. Writh just four players graduating, American Fork fans can anticipate more progress in the program next season, when the Cavemen will move into 5A as part of a new north county coun-ty region. American Fork Citizen - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - Page 7 ill Jt - - ?t the buzzer to end the third quarter to cut the Springville lead to 23-16. Whitney Richins scored to open the fourth quarter for American Fork and after a Springville turnover, Adrienne Adri-enne Schneider got a bucket to close the gap to 23-20. After Springville's Nicole Morin made one of two free throws, Willard scored to Amanda Willard Year: Senior Age: 18 Birthplace: American Fork Sports: Basketball, track, cross country and soccer Positions: point guard on DasKetnan team, varsity racer on cross country team, sprinter for track team, and goalie for soccer iiiiiMiiiMWiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliwMiiM'iiiiWinMiiii miTiMMrii mmm iriiimriliir -uriTiTT- nfl unf 'vn fin irrT inn team Favorite sports teams: University of I'tah Utes Favorite food: rice tacos Favorite restaurant: Chili's Favorite book: Adventure books Hobbies: Teaching piano, playing violins and guitars, gui-tars, singing. Dislikes: Pudding, gossiping and RYU Favoite class: Athletics Goals: To graduate from high school, attend college, and play for a collegiate team Heroes: Mom and my friends Head basketball coach Corey Clayton said "She never takes a day off. She has always worked as hard off the court as she has on it." Tracksters compete at Simplot, outdoor season begins Monday Six American Fork track athletes gained additional experience competing at last weekend's 27th annual Sim plot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, one of the count ry's biggest indoor meets. Josh Mayne was the top placer for the Cavemen, taking 17th place in the finals of the 400 meter dash in 53. 2K seconds. sec-onds. He qualified by running the event in 53.60 seconds in the preliminaries. In the 3200, Mike Felix finished 2(Sth at 10:19.85 and Jarett Pulsipher came in 41st at 10:34 .fis. In the 18(10, Geoff Harmon was 46th at 4:50.95 and Ben Felix took 97th at 5:03.94. Lindsay Voorheis placed 36th in the 60-meter dash in 8.44 seconds. Coach Timo Mostert placed 10th in the coach's 1600-meter run in 4:53.89. Outdoor track at American Fork High School begins Monday after school. All interested athletes should contact coach Art Taylor at 756-8547, or just report to the football stadium at that time. (hen came up with a steal and converted to tie the game at 24 with 1:11 left in regulation to set up the dramatic dra-matic finish. Bennion led the effort with 14 points, 5 of them coming in the extra periods, and Schneider added 12. Willard scored 6 other K in the overtimes to help push her team over the top. I 4 l kill Amanda Willard |