The Northwestern High School girls basketball team has lost more than its share of fourth-quarter heartbreakers this season. Earlier this week the Tiger girls had a chance to beat a strong Ashland team, but faltered in the final minutes after leading for most of the second half.
Thursday in Maple, the Northwestern girls found themselves in a similar situation against the Spooner Rails, but the Tigers went 9-for-9 at the free-throw line in overtime to win 54-45.
Northwestern entered the second half trailing 22-18, but Anna Morgan fought through double and triple pressure to score 12 points in the third quarter and keep the Tigers in the game. In the fourth Northwestern built a four-point cushion before Spooner reclaimed the lead on a long 3-point shot with less than a minute to play. Jaclyn Amys gave the Tigers back the lead, 43-42, with 30 seconds left, and Spooner made one of two free throws to send it to overtime.
Cassidy Stolzman scored Northwestern's first seven points in OT, making 5-of-5 free throws and adding a basket inside. Morgan went 4-for-4 at the line in OT.
