Vanguard students in the baseline bleachers stood, waved their arms and chanted “pressure” as Katy Faith West’s Sage Auman toed the free-throw line with 5.1 seconds left.

But nothing they could do got to Auman, who calmly sank both of her free throws that proved to be the difference in a 52-51 Eagle victory Saturday night in the TAPPS Class 3A area playoffs.

The Lady Vikings, who had frantically overcome what was once a 14-point deficit to take the lead with 12.5 seconds left, had one last chance.

Vanguard's Hayley Johnson shoots over Faith West defenders Sage Ayman (left) and Rocky Caster (25) in the first half.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Morgan Deaver took the inbounds pass and raced inside the 3-point line before dishing the ball to Kelly Risinger on the right wing.

Risinger gathered in the pass and rose up for an open midrange jumper, but it glanced off the side of the rim as time expired.

“We were trying to get open on the 3-point line,” Vanguard coach Michelle Wheelis Basden said. “They had been leaving the baseline 3 open. If they came out to guard it, we were going to try to get the ball in the post.”

Vanguard was hurt in that situation by the fact that two of its best shooters — Rebecca Bond, who had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Lauren Brown — had fouled out by that point.

Faith West (27-5) led by six with a minute to go, but Bond drained a pair of free throws with 55.9 seconds left, and Hayley Johnson made one six seconds later to make it a 49-46 game.

The Eagles then missed a 3-pointer, and Deaver got the rebound and heaved a long pass over the defense. It ended up in Johnson’s hands, and she made a layup, was fouled and converted the free throw to tie the game at 49 with 31 seconds remaining.

“I’ve got a bunch of fighers,” Wheelis Basden said of the comeback. “It took them the first part of the year to understand how bad they wanted it. But they got it, and they really wanted to win (this game).”

The Lady Vikings trailed 37-27 entering the fourth after a lackluster third quarter for both teams during which they outscored Faith West, 6-3.

Vanguard chopped its deficit down to seven on a Johnson layup with six minutes showing on the fourth-quarter clock. For the next four minutes, neither team made a field goal, but both attempted 10 free throws.

That allowed the Lady Vikings to shave one more point off Faith West’s advantage, making it a 47-41 game before Deaver hit a layup with 1:36 to go to end the field-goal drought. A pair of Faith West free throws set up the six-point lead and the final-minute excitement.

The Eagles led by three late in the first half, but Sierra Kemp scored eight points in the final two minutes — including a layup at the buzzer —as part of a 10-0 run that staked Faith West to a 34-21 halftime margin.

Vanguard’s Rebecca Bond drives inside the 3-point line against Katy Faith West’s Taisha Mitchell.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“That little run hurt,” Whellis Basden said. “I told them at halftime that we had come from behind, and they could do it again.”

Taisha Mitchell only scored four points for the Eagles, but she found her way into the paint time and time again to set up her teammates for easy opportunities for layups or free throws in the foul-filled contest.

Faith West also took advantage of its size advantage, especially on the offensive end, to get second and third chances at the basket.

“We’re skinny, but we know how to block out,” Wheelis Basden said. “We just couldn’t get the position we needed, so a lot of the time they were able to jump over us and get the rebounds.”

Kemp led Faith West with 16 points, while Rocky Caster finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

TCA boys advance

Xavier Denton scored 18 points and teamed with backcourt mates Noah Wible and Tim Weatherly to render Houston St. Thomas Episcopal’s press moot in Texas Christian Academy’s 70-54 area playoff win.

The ability of the TCA guards to break the St. Thomas press allowed for some easy baskets.

Neill Jones and Austin Ondrej were the main beneficiaries of that, as they scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.

St. Thomas “was a full-court, all-out, everywhere-you-go press, just in your shorts the whole time,” TCA coach Mark Wible said. “That’s what we worked on all week long. Once we would break the press, our bigs finished and finished well.”

The Stars led by only one after the first quarter as they adjusted to the St Thomas’ speed.

But in the second, they bumped their margin to eight and ran away from there.

Wible put in 12 points for TCA, while Michael Hrncir led all scorers with 23 for St. Thomas.

TCA advances to the regional final, where it will meet New Braunfels Christian at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Durbon Center in San Antonio.

jorts@wacotrib.com

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