Hennessey Heartbreak
Late surge, last-second free throws help Minco escape Lady Eagles
On the brink of a berth in the area tournament, the Hennessey girls’ basketball season came to a crushing end Saturday.
Minco’s Mayla Briscoe made two free throws with .6 second remaining to lift the Lady Bulldogs to a 37-36 come-from-behind win over Hennessey in a 2A regional consolation championship.
Hennessey led much of the game and had a chance to extend its one-point lead with six seconds left, but missed two free throws.
Briscoe attacked on the other end and drew the foul to hit the game-winning free throws.
Minco was 14 of 16 at the foul line in the fourth quarter and outscored Hennessey 17-6 in the quarter.
Hennessey made the big shots in the fourth quarter Friday.
Kadee Meeker and Emma Copeland delivered monster games as the Lady Eagles extended their season by beating Hinton 60-48.
Up four going into the fourth, Hennessey outscored Hinton 20-12 over the final eight minutes.
Copeland and Meeker combined for 18 of those points.
Copeland went 6 of 8 from the foul line and scored nine of her 21 points in the final quarter.
That included her fourth and final 3-pointer of the night.
Meeker had a monster game.
The senior scored 29 points, which included five treys.
She made two of them in that fourth quarter and had 18 points in the second half.
Hinton was led by Alyssa Hale’s 16 points.
Meeker scored 11 points in the first quarter to help the Lady Eagles to a 16-12 lead.
Copeland made two of her treys in the second as it extended to 28-22.
On Saturday, Meeker led the team with 11 points while Ally Painter scored 10.
Saturday’s loss concluded Hennessey’s season with an 11-16 record.