Right place, right time.
Sammi Ehmke’s basket with :04.1 remaining Monday afternoon proved to be the difference as the Helias Lady Crusaders topped the St. Joseph Benton Lady Cardinals 41-39 in the opening round of the Jefferson Bank Holiday Hoops Tournament at Capital City High School.
“All props to Sammi,” Helias coach Garrett Wiggans said. “That was huge. She hasn’t played a whole lot this season and to see her as a senior pull out a win for us is great to see for us and for her.”
The Lady Cardinals took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter before the Lady Crusaders pieced together their winning comeback.
Gabrielle Bax hit a jumper :30 into the quarter to start the Helias rally. The senior finished with eight points off the bench for the Lady Crusaders.
“She’s an X-factor,” Wiggans said. “She made some big baskets for us.”
Bax, along with Jacie Buschjost, Kenadi Harrison and Ehmke, played key minutes Monday for the Lady Crusaders. Helias needed the bench minutes after leading scorer Adalyn Koelling went to the bench with her fourth foul midway through the third quarter,
“The girls off the bench stepped up,” Wiggans said. “We have to have that next player mentality and they all came through huge for us.”
Koelling came back into the game with 5:29 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Lady Crusaders went on a 7-2 spurt to take a 39-36 lead. Koelling had five of Helias’ points in the run, including a three-point play that gave the Lady Crusaders the three-point advantage.
“You can pick out a lot of things in that game that were huge and that was one of them,” Wiggans said.
Avery Morlock hit a pair of free throws for the Lady Cardinals on their ensuing possession to make it 39-38. Kelsey Johnson then pulled Benton into a tie at 39 on a free throw with :29.3 remaining.
After a couple of empty possessions, the Lady Cardinals pulled down a rebound off a Lady Crusader miss with about five seconds left. But the player fell to the floor under the Helias basket and Ehmke was there to grab the ball and score what was her only basket of the game.
“We’ve been in a lot of tight games this year,” Wiggans said. “To see our girls persevere and pull out a win in a great basketball game against a high-quality opponent, I’m thrilled.”
Helias got off to a great start Monday, scoring the first 11 points of the game on its way to a 14-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the Lady Crusaders’ offense stalled in the second quarter, hitting just 2-of-11 shots and 1-of-4 free throws as the Lady Cardinals cut their deficit to 19-18 at the half.
Benton then went on a 12-2 run at the start of the second half to take a 30-21 advantage. Wiggans believes that’s a product of being a young team.
“We jump out on people, but we don’t know how to put our foot on throat,” he said. “We need to figure out how to keep our foot on the gas pedal and not let teams back in games.”
Benton led 34-27 after three quarters.
Peyton Anderson paced Benton (5-4) with 11 points, while Jaida Cox added 10. Benton will take on Blair Oaks, who dropped a 56-50 overtime decision Monday to Blue Springs South, in the loser’s bracket semifinals at 2:30 p.m. today.
Koelling finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots for the Lady Crusaders (7-5).
Helias will take on Blue Springs South in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. today.