By Riley Bean
Carl Junction, MO – Neither team reached the 30-point mark in the game, but it was thrilling nonetheless, as two terrific girls’ basketball teams battled it out in Carl Junction on Thursday.
CJ prevailed down the stretch against Branson 29-27 in a defensive showdown.
With the score knotted at 27-27 late in the fourth, Alex Vogt got fouled driving to the basket with just 0.6 seconds left on the clock. The senior forward drained both free throws to put her team up two. Branson failed to get a shot off in the last six tenths of a second, securing the victory for Carl Junction.
“At first they wanted me to miss [the second free throw] just so we could see if we could get the rebound, or they could rebound so they wouldn’t have time to go down,” said Vogt after the game. “But Coach Shorter just said, ‘Just go ahead and make it, and whatever happens, happens.’”
Vogt finished with just six points in the game – well below her 12.3 PPG average this season – and in fact was 0-3 at the charity stripe before the final 0.6 seconds.
“She’ll be the first to tell you she had a rough night,” said head coach Brad Shorter. “It wasn’t the Alex Vogt that we’re used to seeing. But she’s one that I would want there at the line late in the ball game because she’s competitive and she does want to win. She made some huge shots and I wouldn’t want anybody else there.”
It was an unusually low-scoring game for both squads. Branson averages 52.21 points per game and Carl Junction averages 44.67. CJ was able to contain Branson’s star senior Amanda Kearney, who finished with just eight points.
“Amanda is our leading scorer and she’s an all-state kid,” said Branson coach Kip Bough. “They just really try to top her and try to match with her. You do that when a kid is averaging over twenty points a game. [Carl Junction] has some length that they can do that a little bit easier than maybe teams that aren’t quite as long.”
Carl Junction led 5-4 after the first quarter. Branson came back in the second frame, but only led 13-7 at halftime. The scoring picked up slightly in the second half, but both teams could only muster 56 total points combined.
Emma Frack led all scorers with 12 points for CJ and Branson junior Lauren Garrison added 11. They were the only two players to hit double figures in the game.
“I felt like it was two really good defensive teams that are kind of mirror images of one another,” said Shorter. “I thought our kids did a terrific job on Amanda Kearney. I thought [Branson] did a great job on Megan [Scott] and Vogt and some of our kids. I just thought it was two really good teams getting after it, and both teams defensively played really well and played really hard. We didn’t score the ball like we wanted to, but they had a lot to do with that. Branson is so well-coached and do so many good things. We were very fortunate to come out with a win there.”
Carl Junction improves its record to 8-1 and will compete in the Bolivar tournament next on January 16. Branson still sits at 11-3 after Thursday’s loss, and Coach Bough will not be discouraged.
“You tell your kids that there are some things you can control and there are some things you can’t control,” he said. “The game of sports is up, you have highs and you have lows, and then we show up to the next day of practice and try to get better.”
Branson – 4 – 9 – 5 – 9 – 27
Carl Junction – 5 – 2 – 13 – 9 – 29
Branson – Lauren Garrison 11, Amanda Kearney 8, Terra Utz-Depriest 3, Tori O’Dell 3, Gracie Jaeger 2
Carl Junction – Emma Frack 12, Alex Vogt 6, Megan Scott 5, Katie Scott 4, Dani Wrensch 2
