Stephenson Outlasts Bark River-Harris In Overtime

HARRIS---The dream of making it to the state finals at Michigan State University has come to an end for the Bark River-Harris High School girls basketball team a lot sooner than planned. The Broncos had an "off night" shooting the three, and fell to the Stephenson Eagles, 57-56, in the Class D district tournament semifinal on Wednesday.

So, instead of clearing their calendars for the next couple of weeks of intense tournament basketball, the Broncos now head into the off-season.

Coach Paul Anderson's Broncos had lost only one game all season long...a bump in the road against the Munising Mustangs. But Wednesday night, the girls missed their first 13 three-point shots and fell behind by 17 points late in the second quarter.

Stephenson led, 32-17, at halftime, but the Broncos used their aggressive half-court trapping defense to force turnovers in the second half.

BR-H closed to within six points at the end of the third quarter, and eventually tied the game in the final seconds.

The Broncos had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but the shot wouldn't fall. In overtime, neither team could get much going. BR-H led, 54-53, before Eagles senior Tori Wangerin scored with 58 seconds left in the overtime period.

The Broncos worked it to Katie Schultz, but she missed with 38 seconds on the clock. The Eagles missed a pair of free throws, giving BR-H another chance. But Hannah Starnes got called for travelling, and the Eagles worked it inside to Kelsey Johnson. She made both free throws to put Stephenson in front 57-54 with 13 seconds left in overtime.

BR-H had another chance to tie with a three-pointer, but it missed with 3.1 seconds to play. The Eagles turned it over when the inbound pass hit the bottom of the backboard, but Starnes was called for travelling again on the next play.

The Eagles had the next inbound pass bounce to BR-H's Schultz, but she scored only two points at the buzzer.

Stephenson got 18 points from Johnson, and Wangerin added 16 points and 14 boards. Autumn Rasner scored 15 points as the Eagles improved to 20-2 on the season.

Bark River-Harris got 15 points from Schultz, while Starnes and Maddison Lindquist each scored 12 points. BR-H finished its season with a 19-2 record.

Stephenson will be at home for the district final Friday night against North Central.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos from Wednesday night's tiurnament game.