MIDDLEPOINT — The Lincolnview Lady Lancers welcomed the Lima Central Catholic Lady Thunderbirds to Lincolnview High School on Thursday night for girls’ non-conference high school basketball. Lincolnview rallied back late to force overtime and eventually picked up the 53-52 victory in OT over LCC.

The story on Thursday night begins with just seven tenths of a second of the clock in the fourth quarter. The Lady Lancers were down 42-39 and inbounding the ball just inside of half court. I couldn’t tell you the odds that Lincolnview would tie the contest with a 3-pointer but they odds were slim at best.

Brianna Ebel looped around a stack of Lady Lancers and Lady T-birds caught the ball past the 3-point line. Ebel was forced to basically catch and fire the inbound pass to beat the clock. Ebel’s shot found the net and sent the home team and home crowd nuts as her triple tied the contest at 42.

Lincolnview kicked off overtime down two starters who had fouled out, Jordan Decker and Sierra Adams. LCC saw their opportunity to feed their post player, Rosie Williams who scored the first six points for the T-birds in OT.

However with every bucket from Williams, Lincolnview countered with two points to keep the game tied. With under twenty seconds, LCC took a 52-51 lead thanks to two fouls shot from Erin Mulcahy.

Lincolnview ran their offense and got an open shot from Adia Welch who drilled a 15 foot jumper to give the Lady Lancers a 53-52 point lead with 1.3 seconds on the clock.

After a Lady T-bird timeout, LCC got fouled and had two chance to tie the game with 1.1 seconds left. LCC missed both foul shots and Lincolnview picked up the win 53-52 over previous unbeaten LCC.

“For whatever reason during crunch time we settled down and play more relaxed,” said Lincolnview girls basketball coach Dan Williamson. “Which is kind of the opposite of what most teams do. We were able to hit two outstanding shots late in the game. One by Brianna Ebel to send it into overtime, then Adia Welch to get us the lead at the end of the game. We definitely have some room for improvement and some things we need to fix but it’s all correctable stuff.”

The contest didn’t start off good for Lincolnview as LCC had an early 10-6 lead thanks to two triples from Mary Kelly Mulcahy. The Lady T-birds had a 13-8 lead after one quarter.

Four points from Josie Mohler put LCC up 16-8 over Lincolnview early in the second period. The Lady Lancers got a spark as Lana Carey hit a jumper which was quickly followed up by layups from Ebel and Annie Mendenhall, 16-14 LCC.

A corner 3-pointer from Mendenhall later cut the LCC lead to 18-17 but the Lady T-birds held a 21-19 lead at intermission.

The Lady T-birds again came out strong to start a quarter as LCC had a 27-19 advantage early in the third. But again Lincolnview counter this time with buckets from Decker and Adams cut the deficit to 27-25 LCC.

LCC held a four point lead going into the final quarter of regulations, 33-29. Again the Lady T-Birds increased their lead this time just to six points with under five minute to play, 36-30.

Lincolnview got a bucket from Decker and two made foul shots from Lakin Brant to trim the lead to two, 36-34. A couple possession later the LCC lead was down to one at 38-37 thanks in part to another corner triple from Mendenhall.

The final two minutes of the fourth quarter was basically all foul shots as both sides keep going one for two from the line. Eventually LCC worked the lead back up to three points thank to foul shots from Hannah Garver and Mohler.

Then Mohler’s foul shot put LCC up 42-39 with just three seconds on the clock. Lincolnview quickly inbounded the ball and called a timeout just as the ball crossed half court with just seven tenth of a second on the clock. And as the say is history.

“It seemed like early in the game we would get a defensive stop at the other end,” said coach Williamson. “Then we would come down and turn the ball over or miss a layup just shot ourselves in the foot a lot. I don’t know how many turnovers we had but it was a lot. But for whatever reason during crunch time we settled down and play more relax.”

Lincolnview improves to 2-1 on the season and LCC drops to 3-1 on the year. The Lady Lancers will take on the New Bremen Lady Cardinals at New Bremen High School on Monday night.

LCC 13 8 12 9 10 52

Lincolnview 8 11 10 13 11 53

Field Goals: LCC 14-30, Lincolnview 20-14 3-Pointer: LCC 4-14 (MK Mulcahy 3, Wilker), Lincolnview 3-11 (Mendenhall 2, Ebel) Rebounds: LCC 23, Lincolnview 19 Assists: LCC 14, Lincolnview 16 Turnovers: LCC 8, Lincolnview 14 Fouls: LCC 18, Lincolnview 27 JV: