Pomeroy Perseveres

Day session

Sometimes coaching is overrated. Sometimes it isn’t.

On a Wednesday morning filled with one-sided victories, the Clallum Bay-Pomeroy girls game came down to an ill-advised 3-pointer that went in, a few clutch calls from the bench and Nettie Heytvelt’s jumper with 1 second left in overtime.

Heytvelt’s shot gave Pomeroy a 45-44 victory over Clallum Bay in the opening round of the 19th girls State B high school basketball tournament at the Arena.

The Pirates (20-5) trailed 44-40 with 40 seconds left in OT when Pomeroy coach Jim Greene called timeout and instructed his team to work the ball inside on its next possession.

Pirates forward Mindy John proceeded to pull up and launch a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left that pulled Pomeroy within 44-43.

“I wasn’t supposed to,” John said of her long-distance heroics. “I shot it and I heard coach yelling, ‘We don’t need a 3.’ But we’ll take it.”

Point guard Lindsay Ritter, one of three eighth-graders on the Bruins (19-5), was intentionally fouled on the ensuing inbounds play, and missed the front end of a one-on-one opportunity. Clallum Bay rebounded the miss, but eighth-grader Emily Dukes was tied up going for a shot and Pomeroy was awarded the ball with 4.7 seconds left.

Enter Heytvelt.

The 5-foot-7 guard, who had already won two other games this year with buzzer-beaters, found the bottom of the net to send Pomeroy on to a second-round matchup with second-ranked Wishkah Valley (25-1) tonight at 6:30.

“It’s just one of those things, I guess,” Heytvelt said. “When it came down to it, we didn’t panic and got the job done - found a way to win.”

Greene said his team originally planned to take another 3-pointer, but plans changed when the Bruins failed to convert their free throw opportunity.

“When they missed it, we came back and yelled at her (Heytvelt) to go ahead and penetrate,” Greene said. “I thought she was going to take it further. … She’s a little more scoring-oriented off the dribble than she is setting up.”

Clallum Bay coach Mike Jannausch blamed himself for the loss.

“I feel I made a mistake in the game. I felt I should have moved my two juniors up to inbound the ball on the last play,” he said. “They’re my two best free-throw shooters and I just didn’t do it. I don’t know why I didn’t.”

Pomeroy’s last-second heroics over-shadowed the Bruins’ strong second-half comeback.

Clallum Bay rallied from a 24-11 deficit at halftime as the Pirates went cold from the field.

Pomeroy hit just two field goals in the third quarter as Clallum Bay went on a 27-14 run in the third and fourth periods.

“I thought the biggest adjustment we made was just to settle down and focus on running a good offense, and they did it,” Jannausch said. “They didn’t run away from us and we just kept coming on and coming on. I don’t know that we made any great adjustment. We just moved better in the second half and kids worked harder at getting open.

“We just didn’t do the job at the end and it’s my fault. I know I have something else that I could have done and I didn’t do it. I own the loss. That poor eighth-grader’s in there just dying - she thinks she lost the game because she didn’t make a free throw and that’s just not true.”

Clallum Bay will play Mount Vernon Christian (20-8), a 63-29 loser to Wishkah Valley, in a loser-out game today at 10:30 a.m.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo