Women’s basketball: EMU forces OT, goes on to win

The EMU basketball women scored in the final seconds of regulation to send the game into overtime in their win tonight at home against Roanoke. The 72-68 victory improves the Royals to 3-3 in the ODAC and 6-7 on the season.

Jess Washington (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) led the charge out of the gate scoring the first 10 EMU points as the teams played even basketball in the first quarter.

The Maroons (9-4/2-4 ODAC) started to make their shots in the second quarter just as the Royals hit a dry spell to give Roanoke a 38-27 advantage heading into halftime.

EMU came out strong to start the second half as they started to chip away at the Maroon lead bringing the score to 49-43 entering the fourth quarter.

Emily McCombs (Culpeper, Va./Eastern View) made a layup with 37 seconds to bring the Royals within two points at 59-57. EMU added one free throw before being forced to foul as time was winding down.

Molly Hassell made the first of two free throw attempts as the Royals recovered the rebound and called timeout to set up a final play with only 9 seconds on the clock.

Down by two points and the clock running out, Precious Waddy (Richmond, Va./Henrico) threw up a three-point desperation heave that was rebounded by a Hornet player and taken out of bounds with 0.9 seconds on the clock to give EMU the ball back.

The Royals inbounded the ball under the basket to Lindsey Krisak (Alexandria, Va./Thomas A. Edison) as she was fouled on the immediate layup attempt to send her to the line with 0.4 seconds remaining trailing 60-58.

In a silenced Yoder Arena, Krisak held her confidence as she sunk back-to-back free throws to tie the game and send it into overtime.

The Maroons took a 65-62 advantage in the overtime period, but with 1:35 left Krisak made a three-pointer to even the score at 65.

After a defensive stop, Washington made a contested, turn-around jump shot to put the Royals ahead by two. The Royals held their ground on the defensive end as Waddy and Krisak made free throws in the final seconds to give EMU their fourth win in a row.

Washington had a double-double on the night scoring 18 points while collecting 12 rebounds. McCombs led all scorers with a career high 22 points. Kiana Childress (Palmyra, Va./Fluvanna County) had three steals for EMU as Waddy finished with 13 points and Krisak with 9.

Both teams shot close to 38% in the game, but the EMU defense really showed in the second half holding Roanoke to shooting just 28.6% (8-28) in the second half after the Maroons shot 50.0% (12-24) in the first half. EMU did make the most of their free throws making 71.4% (20-a28) of their attempts compare to Roanoke’s 57.6% (19-33)

The Royals play their next game at home on Saturday, January 5, against always tough University of Lynchburg at 2:00pm.