Feb. 7, 2004

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - With the score tied at 73-all Wisconsin-Parkside ran one of the oldest plays in basketball, the pick-and-roll, for the game-winning basket with one second left against the Lewis University women's basketball team.

Wisconsin-Parkside's Sammy Kromm slipped her screen near the right wing and Carrie Weir delivered the pass for a wide-open layup that gave Wisconsin-Parkside (12-8, 9-5 Great Lakes Valley Conference) the 75-73 victory over the Flyers (13-8, 10-4 GLVC).

"We didn't do what we were supposed to do," said Lewis head coach Lynn Plett about how the Flyers defended the last play. "Mary Moskal (Cherry Valley, Ill./Rockford Boylan) did a great job on the switch, did exactly what she was supposed to do and somebody just didn't pick up [Kromm], who by chance happens to be the player everyone knew was going to get the ball. So she scores at the basket to win the ball game."

The Flyers overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to force the dramatic finish. UWP had the ball and a three-point lead with 35 seconds remaining, but with no timeouts. Weir turned the ball over on the inbounds play and the Flyers wound up with the ball underneath their own basket with just under 30 seconds to play. Lewis ran an inbounds play that got 3-point sharpshooter Tracy Buchholz (pictured ) open in the corner and the senior buried the game-tying three.

"That was one of our regular inbounds plays," said Plett. "We just got her in a little different position, we tweaked it a bit. I thought they were going to guard it a little better, and actually I told Tracy to pump fake it and try to get three free throws out of it. But, we said 'if it's there, shoot it.'"

Wisconsin-Parkside opened a 42-32 halftime lead on the strength of shooting 54.4 percent from the field. However, Lewis quickly erased the lead in the first 4:10 of the second half. Buchholz opened the half with a 3-pointer that sparked a 14-5 Flyer run that cut the lead to 47-46 with 15:50 to play.

UWP's Michele Pickering answered with a 3-pointer that returned the Ranger lead to four points, but Darcee Schmidt connected on a jumper on Lewis' ensuing possession that trimmed the lead back to two points. Neither team would lead by more than three points for the last 14:53 of the game. The razor-thin leads led to six ties and 11 lead changes in the second half.

The Flyers last held a lead at 70-68 when Schmidt converted a jumper with 1:48 left in the game. Brenda Homar's fifth 3-pointer of the game for a 71-70 lead kept the Rangers from trailing for the rest of the game.

Schmidt led the Flyers with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Buchholz posted 13 points and was 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Moskal had her second-best offensive game of the season as she tallied 17 points with four rebounds and was 7-of-10 from the field.

Kromm's game-high 28 points, including 16 first-half points, led Wisconsin-Parkside. She finished 11-of-14 from the field and was 6-of-8 from the free throw line. Homar netted a season-best 17 points and was 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.

2/7/04