GIRLS BASKETBALL: O-M battles in double OT loss to Seymour

With his three best players sitting on the bench fouled out, and forced to play with four players for several minutes, Orient-Macksburg girls basketball coach Dave Hartman still saw his team take a shot to win the game in double overtime Friday night.

With four players on the floor and O-M trailing 58-57, Kaydence Kirkland threaded the needle on a pass to Logann Carson in a crowd of Seymour defenders as the clock wound down in the second overtime. Carson was unable to get the shot off cleanly in traffic and Seymour held on for the one-point victory.

“I get it that you put your whistle away at the end of the game, a lot of good officials do,” Hartman said. “But that wasn’t the way they officiated the rest of the game. We did what we could. I’m really proud of the girls.”

For the game, 53 fouls were whistled and the teams combined to take 73 free throws. Each team had three players foul out. O-M’s three leading scorers — Christa Cass, Emma Boswell and Kinsey Eslinger — were disqualified while Seymour lost starters Gracie Peck, Ashlynn Sharp and Taylor Ruby to foul disqualification.

The difference was, O-M has only seven total players. Twice in the game, near the end when three were fouled out, and earlier when two were fouled out and Carson was being examined for a possible concussion, the Bulldogs played with four on the court.

The Warriors outscored O-M 27-16 at the free throw line.

During the first overtime, Carson cleared concussion protocol with medical personnel and returned to the court in the second overtime.

The Bulldogs nearly won the game before it reached overtime. Kirkland, a freshman reserve guard who scored eight points Friday, hit a 3-pointer at the 1:45 mark to give O-M a 43-38 lead.

Seymour’s Gracie Peck hit one of her 13 made free throws to tie it 45-45 with 10 seconds left to force overtime.

Cass and Boswell had been slowed by illness in the days leading up to Friday’s game, but both came through with big performances. Cass fouled out with 58 seconds left in the first overtime and finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Boswell, who has led the state in rebounding during the season, hauled in 18 rebounds Friday to go with her 14 points.

Kinsey Eslinger scored eight points for O-M. She sank two free throws to push the Bulldogs in front 51-47 in the final minute of the first overtime.

But, again it did not prove to be enough of a cushion to hold off the Warriors.

Eslinger, the team’s primary ball handler and point guard, fouled out with 41 seconds left and Seymour climbed back into a 51-51 tie.

After Seymour moved ahead by three points, Kirkland banked in a 3-pointer to tie it at 56-56 with 1:41 left. Twenty seconds later Boswell was assessed her fifth foul, leaving the Bulldogs with four players.

Seymour, leading 58-57, turned the ball over with :04.9 left, which set up O-M’s final inbounds play resulting in Carson’s shot in traffic that fell short.

“I have told our girls during the season that most of the time you’re going to stay in with fouls,” Hartman said. “We preach to play straight up and no reaching fouls. Over the years I’ve seen so many games where a player is sitting in the first half with two fouls for four or five minutes. And then the game gets away. You can play them later, but by then the game has gotten away.”

O-M, 5-15 overall and 2-9 in the Bluegrass Conference, concluded the regular season Monday in a 44-25 loss at East Union before playing at CAM Thursday to open Class 1A regional play.