Spitko sends Daniel Boone out as winners
OLEY >> Maddie Spitko was as amazed as anyone in the building. Her eyes gave her away.
Spitko’s steal and lay-up with 5 seconds to play capped a frantic end to the Blazers’ Thursday matinée with Oley Valley — and to Boone’s season. She corralled an attempted pass by Oley Valley, intended for Amanda Aulenbach near the timeline, and drove in for a lay-up to give Daniel Boone an unlikely 41-40 cross-sectional win over the host Lynx.
With the win, Boone’s season ends at 7-14 overall. The Blazers also finished in a four-way tie, at 3-7, with three other clubs in Berks League Section 1.
Oley Valley (12-10, 8-2 Section 3) continues onto the Berks playoffs. But the eight-seed Lynx draw top-seeded and 21-1 Governor Mifflin, at Exeter, Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in the quarterfinals — a formidable task.
Thursday’s outcome seemed headed the other way in the final moments. Boone trailed Oley Valley 40-36 coming out of a time out with 28 seconds left, but Kaitlyn Keeley drained a clutch 3-point shot from the corner, on a kick-out pass with the low block bottled up, with 12.6 ticks left.
The Lynx inbounded the ball, but a mixup near midcourt jarred the ball loose, where Spitko pounced on it and laid it in uncontested for the game-winning basket. Aulenbach then attempted a desperation heave from midcourt as the buzzer sounded that fell a couple of feet short.
“I thought the official had blown the whistle, so I kind of stopped for a second, but then a teammate helped me out, ‘go to the basket!’,” Spitko said.
Spitko was unaware her steal and lay-up had actually given the Blazers the lead until she looked up and saw the scoreboard as the buzzer sounded.
“I thought we were tied up and going to overtime,” she said. “I forgot we had hit a three. I looked at the clock and we had 41. Couldn’t believe it.”
It was a satisfying end to a tough season for the Blazers, who were one of the youngest squads in Berks this season. Keeley’s 3-ball set up the final chaotic seconds.
“We ran a play for Kaitlyn to pop a three, and she’s been hitting them all year long,” Boone head coach Ray Cinquanto said. “Once we hit that, we had to get the ball back. I was surprised they threw it in the middle where our guards were. Maddie made a great play. It was a great ending.
“We’re really young. Fourteen out the 18 girls are freshman and sophomores. … We just wanted to have fun. We knew they were going to be tough, we knew it wasn’ going to be easy. But it was a valuable learning experience for everybody. Get the freshmen and sophomores valuable varsity game time experience.”
The season-ender was a tight affair throughout, with neither team grabbing a lead larger than five points. Just prior to the frantic ending, Oley Valley had rallied from a 36-34 deficit with a 6-0 run capped by what looked to be the knife, a 3-pointer from Madeline Kauffman, to give the hosts that 40-36 edge inside a minute to play.
Aulenbach, the best player on the floor Thursday, had 19 points to lead all scorers. Spitko scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half to tie Alyna Roesener for team-high honors.
