Another Frustrating End For Senior-Laden Lakeside
It was likely one of Lakeside High girls basketball coach Ron Miller’s most difficult losses to swallow.
He had to walk into a tear-filled locker room Saturday morning and say goodbye to five seniors who played in four state tournaments.
The trophy the seniors desperately desired eluded them a final time as the Knights of Plummer/Worley fell to Prairie 43-33 in the State A-4 consolation final.
It was the 102nd and final game for four of the five senior starters: Amy Fuchs, Mariah Middleton, Michelle Kelley and Kristina McPeak. Their career record is 71-31.
“They’ve done EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING,” Miller emphasized about his seniors. “Nobody comes to that many tournaments and plays that many games; I feel so bad for them because they never did bring home a trophy.”
Lakeside ends the season at 16-10.
“To get a district championship this year when nobody really thought they could go again after we lost one of our key players off last year’s team speaks volumes about the amount of heart those kids have,” Miller said.
Lakeside beat Prairie twice in the regular season. And the Knights appeared to be on their way to a hat trick late in a first half that took just 22 minutes of actual time to be played.
A free-throw line jumper by Sunni Jo Mullen, the other senior starter, put Lakeside ahead 20-14 with 1:37 left before intermission.
But Prairie pulled within 20-16 when post Jamie Chicane scored 13 seconds later.
The Pirates pulled even in the third quarter that saw the lead teeter back and forth before Prairie took a 26-25 lead into the final quarter.
But when Lakeside went scoreless for the first 4:23 of the fourth quarter, Prairie could smell a trophy. The Pirates used an 8-0 spurt to open a 34-25 lead that the Knights couldn’t recover from.
The lead reached 11 points at 38-27 with 1:42 to go. Middleton and Kelley hit backto-back 3-pointers to pull Lakeside within 38-33 before the Pirates secured the win at the foul line.
“Not one of them (the seniors) is what you’d call a dominant basketball player, but together they hustle, they scrap, they’re on the floor, they do all those things,” Miller said.
Despite being one of the shortest teams if not the shortest team in the tournament, Lakeside outrebounded the taller Pirates 49-42. But the Knights made just 14 of 69 shots (20 percent).
Prairie 43, Lakeside 33
Lakeside 8 12 5 8 - 33
Prairie 9 7 10 17 - 43
Lakeside - Anderson 0, L. Kelley 0, McPeak 3, Benak 0, Moore 0, Reynolds 0, Middleton 17, Kelley 7, Fuchs 2, Mullen 4, Silvers 0. Prairie - L. Rehder 7, Gehring 1, B. Rehder 10, Chicane 11, Uhlenkott 3, Kaschmitter 6, Nuxoll 0, Groom 0, Arnzen 0, Sonnen 0, Riener 0, Goeckner 5.