At a point during the second half it seemed that Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn was taking control of its Class 2A girls' regional quarterfinal game with Manson Northwest Webster. But the Hawks would only score two points the rest of the way and the Cougars did just enough to emerge with a 46-44 win on Feb. 13 in Hartley.

The closeness of the final score confirmed Hawk coach Ashley Tessum's feeling that the game would be a battle.

"Going into the game, I knew it was going to be a hard-fought game. We were pretty evenly matched teams," she noted. "I even told the team at halftime to keep battling; the victory would probably come down to the very last second of the game, and it did."

Frankie Mohni made the Hawks' last field goal with less than six minutes to play, giving them a 42-35 lead. The Cougars then made two baskets and two free throws to narrow the margin to one point.

Moriah Otto's two free throws with 3:23 remaining gave the Hawks their final points. A free throw and a three-point play then put the Cougars in front for the first time since early in the third quarter. Neither team would score over the next 2-1/2 minutes. Manson Northwest Webster then added a free throw to cap the regional tournament win.

"In the second half they were playing pretty tight defense and unfortunately we weren't able to put up the shots like we did during the first half," Tessum noted. "I think that was the biggest obstacle holding us back from the win."

Manson Northwest Webster led for most of the first half, including 16-14 after one quarter. The Hawks only led at the start of the game on a basket by Kylee Schiphoff, twice in the second quarter on baskets by Abby Douma and at halftime (29-28) on Schiphoff's three-pointer at the buzzer.

The Cougars again led early in the second half before H-M-S went ahead on a basket by Gracie Knobloch. A basket by Lindsey Van Es and two free throws by Otto late in the third quarter, plus another basket by Otto to open the fourth quarter put the Hawks up by seven. But they were unable to maintain it down the stretch.

Otto led H-M-S with 14 points, Douma scored 11, Schiphoff scored eight, Mohni scored seven, and Knobloch and Van Es each scored two.

MIKE PETERSEN/SENTINEL-NEWS

Lindsey Van Es gets behind the Manson Northwest Webster defense to score two points.

Douma had nine rebounds and seven blocks; Knobloch contributed six rebounds, five assists and two steals; Mohni grabbed four rebounds; Schiphoff had three rebounds and two steals; and Otto had three rebounds.

Manson Northwest Webster committed 14 turnovers while H-M-S finished with 31.

Sophia McCullough led the Cougars (12-11) with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

H-M-S closed out the season with a record of 13-9. A review of the 2023-24 season will be featured in a future issue.