QUARRYVILLE – It was the best timeout Tommy McDonald never had.
His team trailing by a point and with time running out in the second overtime, Solanco’s girls’ basketball coach was signaling for a timeout.
But for whatever reason, none of the three officials saw it.
And in the end, that was A-OK with McDonald.
Claudia Buzzard took an outlet feed, motored through traffic the length of the court and kissed in a short shot in the lane with 8 seconds to go, putting Solanco back in the lead.
And the Golden Mares dodged a bullet when Harrisburg didn’t get a very good look at the buzzer, and Solanco held on for a wild 60-59 double-OT victory in a District 3 “AAAA” first-round game on Tuesday night.
“We were lucky to get a break in the end and we cashed in on it,” McDonald said. “We were due to win of these, maybe. It came down to basically the last shot either way, and we won out as a team.”
All three of Solanco losses this season have been stingers; twice the Mares have given up second-halfleads, including a 69-66 loss to Lancaster Mennonite in the L-L League quarterfinals last Monday.
The Mares (21-3 overall) finally finished one off against Harrisburg, and advanced to the district quarterfinals for the first time since 1995, when Solanco upset No. 1 seed Manheim Central 64-63 in a “AAAA” first-round game.
And Friday’s 7 p.m. tip at Penn Manor will come against a very familiar foe: Manheim Township.
The Blue Streaks shuffled off to the quarterfinals compliments of a 45-30 first-round win over Shippensburg on Tuesday.
Manheim Township, which knocked off Solanco in last season’s L-L League championship game, rallied past the Mares 36-33 in Quarryville in a league crossover game on January 25. The Mares led by nine points in the fourth quarter in that one.
Friday’s rematch is for a spot in the “AAAA” semifinals and an automatic trip to States.
Friday’s loser goes to the consolation round and needs another win to go to States.
Solanco, the No. 5 seed, needed a pair of grueling overtimes sessions to finally fend off Harrisburg, the No. 12 seed.
Both teams had shots to win it at the fourth quarter horn and at the buzzer of the first OT.
Harrisburg point guard Briana Sye, a thorn in Solanco’s side from tip to final horn, had an uncontested running floater with 1 tick to go in regulation, but missed, and the Cougars and the Mares went to OT knotted at 50-all.
At the end of the first OT, Solanco’s Jillian Eberly heaved up a runner in the lane but also misfired at the horn.
Buzzard, who scored 13 points, made sure a third OT never materialized with her game-winner. And that happened in part because McDonald was not awarded a timeout.
Sye put Harrisburg ahead 59-58 with 16 ticks to go in the second OT and Solanco immediately called a timeout.
McDonald said his plan was to get the ball over the time-line and call another timeout to set up a last shot.
Mackenzie Keys, who pumped in 20 points for Solanco, got sandwiched on the inbounds and she found Eberly, who shoveled a pass ahead to Buzzard, who skirted the left side and got the ball over.
That’s when two Harrisburg defenders tried trapping Buzzard, but she kept on trucking.
Once Buzzard cleared mid-court, McDonald was up off the bench with his arms up, calling for timeout.
But a whistle never came.
“We got lucky there,” McDonald admitted. “I saw the trap coming from the side and then I got blocked out by the ref running by. I saw the (Harrisburg) girls coming up the side and then I got screened by the ref. That’s why I was calling timeout; I saw two Harrisburg girls converging on (Buzzard) so I was trying to call timeout.”
Asked if he was glad the refs didn’t see his timeout call, McDonald answered quicky.
“Yes,” he said, matter of factly.
Instead of a timeout, the play continued, Buzzard split the trap, continued her mad dash to the hoop and dropped in a short runner, giving Solanco the lead for good.
“It got a little scary there,” Buzzard said. “Somehow our team always makes these crazy plays and they work. And this one was exciting. … The shot was there. My hands were shaking a little bit and I was like, Wow, I hope this goes on. I knew there wasn’t a lot of time. But I wasn’t counting like 3-2-1 in my head or anything. I was thinking shot-first at that point. Or getting fouled.”
The go-ahead hoop was also major redemption for Buzzard, who missed a pair of free throws – including an air ball – with time running out in regulation.
“I kept hustling and getting back; I’m known more as our defensive kind of player,” she said. “I tried to stay positive.”
She did.
“We’ve been in a lot of tough games before, but that one was pretty intense,” Buzzard said. “It was exciting. If we get behind we don’t get down on ourselves. We’ve been in this situation so many times it’s like second nature for us. We’re good at pushing through the whole time and we never give up on each other.”
“So this one,” she added, “is extra special.”
Solanco, the three-time reigning L-L League Section 2 champ, enjoyed a 15-9 lead after the first quarter and withstood Harrisburg’s second-quarter push and led 26-25 at the half.
But the Cougars (14-9) roared to life in the third. Aja Lewis hit a pair of 3-pointers, including a deep trey from the right wing that put Harrisburg ahead for the first time, 32-29, with 2:43 to go in the third.
Harrisburg built a 6-point lead, but Keys beat the third-quarter buzzer with a jumper and Solanco trailed 37-33 heading into the fourth.
The Mares grabbed the lead back, 39-38, when Keys drilled two foul shots with 6:47 to go. She was 10-for-13 from the line.
Harrisburg tied it at 50-all when Briana Mack, who scored 16 points and yanked down 15 rebounds, stuck back Sye’s miss with 22 ticks to go in regulation.
Solanco had the ball with 13 seconds to go in the fourth, but fumbled away the inbounds pass and then sweated out Sye missing a runner at the buzzer.
In the first OT, Sye, who scored 15 points, tied it up at 54-all with 31 seconds to go and the Cougars sweated out Eberly’s miss at the horn.
Gillian Glackin, who was superb in the paint with 22 points and 12 rebounds for Solanco, scored the first two buckets in the second OT, but Lewis kept it close with another deep 3.
It looked like Sye’s basket with 16 seconds to go might win it for the Cougars.
But Buzzard had other ideas.
“Claudia’s best game as a player to date,” McDonald said. “She missed those two free throws (at the end of regulation), yes. But she really stuck with it and did a great job for the team.”
Buzzard called the win a confidence booster moving forward to the rematch vs. Manheim Township.
McDonald called his team’s victory the second-best since he’s been on the job, just behind Solanco’s win over District 3 “AA” powerhouse York Catholic in the championship game of the Central York Holiday Tournament back in December.
“A big, big win,” McDonald said. “Huge.”
And now a huge rematch against an L-L League foe on Friday.
NOTABLES: Solanco played without senior guard and 1,000-point scorer Emily Allport, who is done for the season after she broke her collarbone in the Mares’ loss to Lancaster Mennonite in the league quarterfinals. … Solanco forced Harrisburg into 21 turnovers, but the Mares turned it over 26 times. … Harrisburg out-rebounded Solanco 42-36. … Buzzard’s 13 points matched her season-high, which she scored way back in the first game of the season, a 63-20 win over Kutztown in the Twin Valley Tip-Off Tournament on December 9. It was just the third time this season she scored in double figures. … Glackin, who scored in double figures for the 13th game in a row, is up to 860 career points. … Lewis hit three 3′s and scored 9 points for Harrisburg, which finished in third place with a 9-5 record in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division this season.
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Yay, Claudia! Congrats to the Solanco girls’ basketball team! Good luck next round.