SEATTLE — It was already past bedtime for the members of the Jackson Wolf Pack fourth-grade basketball team when they watched their hero nail the biggest shot of the night late Thursday.
And chances are, the 9- and 10-year-olds from Mill Creek were all too happy to stay up another 20 m
inutes later.
Mill Creek native and Wolf Pack alumnae Kristi Kingma hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with five seconds remaining in regulation, then added a traditional three-point play in overtime to lead the University of Washington women’s basketball team to a 90-76 win over Oregon on Thursday night.
It marked the Huskies’ first overtime win of the season, and possibly their most improbable victory of coach Tia Jackson’s four-year career at the school.
UW (9-10 overall, 4-6 in the Pac-10) rallied from an 18-point, second-half deficit, rallied again to take the lead on Kingma’s 3, then had to settle for overtime when Oregon’s Nia Jackson hit a score-tying free throw with 1.3 seconds left.
The Huskies scored the final 16 points of overtime to complete the comeback victory, which ended at around 9:20 p.m.
Chances are, even a 10-year old will remember this one well into adulthood. UW fought back from certain elimination while Oregon’s Jackson, who had 15 first-half points, watched from the bench with a knee injury. Jackson checked back into the game, willed her team back to a six-point lead with two minutes remaining, then the Huskies came storming back again.
“This has got to be up there,” UW’s Jackson said afterward when asked if it was among the most exciting games she’d ever coached. “It’s got to be in the top five, and I’ve been a part of some good ones.”
“It was one of the most fun games I’ve ever been a part of,” Kingma said afterward.
Kingma, who had a team-high 20 points, hit the biggest shot of regulation after teammate Regina Rogers dove onto the floor to corral a loose-ball rebound and unleashed a desperation shovel pass toward UW’s leading scorer. “I wouldn’t say we actually practiced that,” Rogers joked afterward.
Kingma’s open 3-pointer from the wing with 5.8 seconds left put the Huskies ahead 74-73 and sent an exclusive crowd of 1,811 fans at Hec Edmundson Pavilion into a near frenzy.
But after an Oregon timeout, the Ducks inbounded the ball to Jackson, who made a wild drive to the basket and went crashing to the floor as UW’s Marjorie Heard tried to get out of the way. Heard was whistled for a foul with 1.3 seconds left on the clock.
“No time for a clever play. Give it to the best player,” Oregon coach Paul Westhead said of Jackson’s drive to the basket. “Exactly what we thought would happen happened.”
Jackson, a 73-percent free-throw shooter, missed her first shot but swished the second to tie the score and send the game into overtime.
The extra session was almost all Rogers. After Sarah Morton nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give UW a 77-76 lead 55 seconds into overtime, Rogers hit a pair of free throws and added three consecutive field goals in a span of less than a minute to put the game away.
Rogers, who watched almost an entire road game at Oregon last season from the bench because of a lack of conditioning, appeared to have more energy than anyone on the floor during Thursday’s overtime session, in which she scored eight of her season-high 18 points.
Oregon used a 21-5 run over the final three minutes of the first half and the opening 4:15 of the second to take a 51-33 lead, and it looked like the Ducks were well on their way to a blowout win.
But after Oregon’s Jackson went to the sideline because of a left knee injury she suffered just before halftime had flared up again, UW went on a tear of its own. The Huskies scored 17 unanswered points and eventually outscored Oregon 21-2 over a six-minute span to take a 56-55 lead.
Tired of watching, Jackson checked herself back into the game and snapped the Ducks out of their funk. She scored six points in a span of 2 1/3 minutes to help Oregon (12-9, 3-7) pull out to a 72-66 lead with two minutes left in regulation.
But Jackson hurt her other knee, the right one, when she took a spill on her final drive of regulation and played less than a minute of the overtime session.
During the second half and overtime, the Ducks were outscored 39-7 when Jackson was not on the floor.
“Obviously, you can see the difference when she’s not in the game,” Westhead said.
The Oregon coach said that Jackson’s injury and some foul trouble early in the second half were factors in the Huskies’ comeback. A press that forced UW into several first-half turnovers was called off so that Oregon could have enough bodies to hold off the Huskies down the stretch.
“It was one of those games we needed to end in regulation,” Westhead said.
Thanks to Kingma, this one wasn’t settled in regulation.
There might be some tired fourth-graders in Mill Creek today, but it was well worth it in the end.
“It was one of the most fun games I’ve ever been a part of,” Kingma said.
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