Meadow Heights girls basketball team's postseason agony strikes again

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- New Haven sophomore Stephanie Gerling waited for the best possible moment to score the biggest point of her life.

It also proved to be her only one in the Class 2 sectional girls basketball game Wednesday night at Park Hills Central High School.

Gerling made the second of her two free throws with 3 seconds remaining to break a deadlock and lift New Haven to a 49-48 victory against Meadow Heights.

The loss ended the Panthers' season at 22-5 and kept them from reaching the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2008.

Gerling had a chance to break the tie a little more than a minute earlier but missed a wide-open layin on a fast break.

Meadow Heights players react to their 48-47 loss to New Haven in the Class 2 sectional game Wednesday in Park Hills, Mo. Check out more photos at semoball.com. (Fred Lynch)

She got a chance to redeem herself when she pulled down a rebound after the Panthers misfired on a pair of shots in the closing seconds.

"I was so scared whenever I first missed that layup," Gerling said. "I thought the game was over, kind of. And then when I pulled down that rebound and got fouled, I grabbed my head a little. I've never been very good at free throws. I knew I had to make that last one. I like tuned everything out."

The free throw was the final twist in a game that had several unexpected turns.

New Haven (16-12) had trailed since the first quarter and looked to be in deep trouble when sophomore point guard Rachel Steinhoff picked up her fourth foul with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in the third quarter and Meadow Heights ahead 35-30. Steinhoff was the Shamrocks' leading scorer at the time and finished with a team-high 17 points.

The Panthers seemingly were in position to pull away but instead yielded the lead with Steinhoff on the bench.

Meadow Heights senior Whitney Welker shoots during the first quarter Wednesday.

"That was awesome," Steinhoff said. "That was probably one of my favorite parts. They held together even though I wasn't out there. I was really proud of them for that."

New Haven closed the period with a 6-0 run, which was part of a bigger 10-0 spurt that extended into the fourth quarter.

"We didn't extend. Actually we lost it," Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio said. "I don't think we realized we could attack more with her out of the game. We didn't do a very good job."

The game took another twist early in the fourth quarter.

Steinhoff returned and stayed around to the end, but Meadow Heights lost one of its two key players with two quick fouls in the blink of an eye.

Senior Whitney Welker picked up her fourth foul with 7:17 left in the game. She fouled out nine seconds later with 14 points.

"I had no idea she had four fouls," said senior Erin Bollmann, who finished with a game-high 24 points. "It was a very darkening thing right there."

Welker had picked up her third foul in the opening minutes of the second half and had stayed in the game. The two quick fouls even surprised Verticchio.

"That was probably my fault," Verticchio said. "It happened so fast, I honestly didn't even think of it."

Welker said she was guarding an entry pass in the post when her night ended.

"I made some silly fouls in a game I shouldn't have made," Welker said. "People say, 'Oh, that was a really bad call, that last one.' But what about the four before that? I should have been smarter with my fouls."

The ensuing pair of free throws by Kayla Oetterer capped New Haven's 10-0 run and gave the Shamrocks a 40-35 lead with 7:08 left.

New Haven still led by six points, 48-42, midway through the quarter, but Bollmann scored on three consecutive possessions to draw the Panthers even at 48-48. Her steal and basket with 2:45 left tied the game.

Both teams failed to score until Gerling's winning free throw.

Meadow Heights lost junior guard Taylor Cureton to an ankle injury, committed two turnovers and missed two shots down the stretch.

The two misses came on the final possession after Gerling missed her layin with 1:20 left. Meadow Heights ran down the clock before Jessica Baremore missed on an open jumper along the left baseline. Caitlin Cook grabbed the rebound and missed, then fouled Gerling.

"This is not a knock on the referee, but nobody likes to see that cheap call at the end to win a ballgame with 3.5 seconds to go," Verticchio said. "They're 90-some feet away from the basket and it's a very touchy foul."

What Welker saw was her teammates fighting to the end.

"I have never been more proud of my teammates in my entire life than what they did right there," Welker said. "I told them that in the locker room."

The Panthers made 16 of 34 shots from the field but were just 15 of 24 from the free-throw line, including 3 of 8 in the fourth quarter. They also committed 20 turnovers.

"I think we needed to get the game in the 50s and 60s, and we just couldn't do it," Verticchio said. "They did a good job holding us down."

New Haven made 17 of 34 shots from the field and went 13 of 21 from the line, including 9 of 12 during the fourth quarter.

Bollmann had 10 points at halftime, including eight in the first quarter when the Panthers took an eight-point lead.

Bollmann scored the game's first four points by hitting shots on Meadow Heights' first two possessions.

New Haven took its only lead of the first half, 8-7, when Emily Kallmeyer hit a shot just inside the 3-point arc at the 4:42 mark.

Sophomore Hayley Thorne restored Meadow Heights' lead the next trip down the floor when she deposited an offensive rebound off a Welker miss. Bollmann increased the lead to 12-8 when she scored a conventional three-point play the next trip down the floor.

Meadow Heights finished the quarter on a 7-2 run for a 19-11 lead.

The Panthers committed eight turnovers in the second quarter but still managed to take a 28-23 lead into halftime.

Meadow Heights will graduate its two main cogs -- Bollmann and Welker -- in a run where Meadow Heights posted four 20-win seasons. The seven-year-old program posted an 88-25 record with the pair in the program.

"We beat a lot of teams we never beat before -- Dexter, Notre Dame," Bollmann said. "They are very good teams, so we are proud of ourselves. We just wish we would have executed at the end where it matters the very most."

New Haven 11 12 13 13 -- 49

Meadow Hts 19 9 7 13 -- 48

NEW HAVEN (49) -- Stephanie Gerling 1, Emily Kallmeyer 4, Elise McDonald 6, Kierstin Monzyk 10, Kayla Oetterer 11, Rachel Steinhoff 17. FG 17, FT 13-21, F 19. (3-pointers: Monzyk 2. Fouled out: none)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (48) -- Erin Bollmann 24, Taylor Cureton 6, Hayley Thorne 4, Whitney Welker 14. FG 16, FT 15-24, F 20. (3-pointers: Welker. Fouled out: Welker)