Linn girls make free throws down stretch to beat Blair Oaks

Linn’s Hannah Hackmann tries to drive the ball around Autumn Bax of Blair Oaks during Wednesday night’s game at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)
Linn’s Hannah Hackmann tries to drive the ball around Autumn Bax of Blair Oaks during Wednesday night’s game at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)

WARDSVILLE -- The Linn Lady Wildcats have shown they can win games with the 3-point shot.

On Wednesday night, they won the game at the free-throw line.

The Lady Wildcats shot 10-of-12 at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, holding on for a 53-48 victory against the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons at Blair Oaks High School.

“We’ve been off and on at the free-throw line all year,” Linn coach Ryan Rost said. “I told them when we start getting into these bigger games later in the season, that’s going to be the determining factor against good teams.

“We finally knocked some down late tonight.”


 Gallery: Blair Oaks Girls Basketball vs. Linn


Linn did shoot 8-of-16 from 3-point range in the win, getting four makes from Aushara Hostetler, who scored a game-high 20 points for the Lady Wildcats.

“She’s definitely a great player to have,” Rost said. “If you get her open, it’s going to fly, and chances are it’s going to go in.”

While the long-range shot was Linn’s go-to offense in the early going, Blair Oaks did everything it could to get the ball inside.

And if the ball found the hands of Autumn Bax, it was almost an automatic two points. The Blair Oaks 6-foot junior center made all four shot attempts in the first quarter, and the fourth basket gave the Lady Falcons a 13-8 lead with 2:10 to play in the opening quarter.

“She had a great game tonight,” Blair Oaks coach Brandon Moore said of Bax, who finished with a double-double of 19 points and 16 rebounds. “She came alive tonight and we need her to do that every single night.”

Bax avoided foul trouble -- she didn’t pick up her first foul until the 7:37 mark of the fourth quarter -- and was able to be on the court for nearly the entire game.

“She makes a huge impact on both ends of the floor,” Moore said. “She probably had a couple blocks in there as well.

“We just need a few people to come along with her.”

Hostetler and Emma Monnette made back-to-back 3s in the final minute of the first quarter to tie the score at 14.

Hannah Hackmann and Hostetler each made a 3 in the second quarter, stretching Linn’s lead to 24-19, but Blair Oaks answered with a 3 from the left wing by Baley Rackers and a drive and layup by Chesney Luebbering to tie the game at 24 going into halftime.

“It was a new game at that point, and that was the message at halftime,” Moore said. “We dug ourselves a little hole there in the second quarter, but I liked the way we battled.”

Blair Oaks started with a man-to-man defense against Linn, then switched to a zone defense later in the game. Although that could have opened up more shot opportunities from 3-point range for the Lady Wildcats, they began putting an emphasis on getting the ball inside in the second half.

With the score tied a 32, Hostetler gave Linn the lead for good with a basket in the lane at the 1:49 mark of the third quarter. Hostetler made a pair of free throws and Autumn Baker scored from the right block to give the Lady Wildcats a six-point lead.

“They do a really good job switching defenses up,” Rost said. “We knew if they were going to run their 3-2 or different types of zones, we were going to try to beat them inside and pull their bigs out to give us a chance at the rim.”

Linn’s 6-0 run to end the third quarter was the largest run of the game.

“It wasn’t a game of runs,” Moore said. “When we got down six, we knew it was going to be a battle coming back.”

Blair Oaks cut its deficit to three points on a 3 by Rackers with 1:18 to play, making the score 47-44. The Lady Falcons shot just 5-of-21 from 3-point range, but Rackers was 3-of-7 to finish with nine points.

“That was a huge shot, she’s been shooting the ball better as of late,” Moore said. “We’re going to continue to look to her to stretch the floor as much as possible.”

Emma Wolken also reached double figures for the Lady Falcons, scoring 10 points in the second half.

Baker joined Hostetler in double figures for the Lady Wildcats with 10 points. Baker made four free throws in the fourth quarter.

“If I can get that confidence and scoring out of everybody, it’s going to open things up for (Hostetler) and give her more opportunities,” Rost said.

Linn (10-6) will turn around and play Blair Oaks again Monday in the first round of the Harrisburg Tournament. That game starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Harrisburg High School gym.

“This was a great test for us,” Rost said. “We had to earn it tonight.”

Blair Oaks (4-11) will play tonight at Boonville in a Tri-County Conference matchup before starting tournament play.

Linn will be the third opponent Blair Oaks has played twice this season, along with Class 5 No. 1 Helias and Moberly.

“It’s never easy to turn around and play the same team twice,” Moore said. “Hopefully this is the last time we have to deal with it.

“But we’re going to go back to the drawing board and figure out some things we can do differently. Hopefully, we can turn this one around and get a win.”