[Stardust]

It was just a month ago when the Newport Central Catholic girls’ basketball team dismantled St. Henry in the championship game of the Ninth Region All “A” Classic, but on Wednesday it was a group of especially determined St. Henry seniors who exacted revenge in fairly dramatic fashion.

Senior guard Annie Fugate, one of three St. Henry seniors playing their final home game, made a free throw with two seconds remaining to break a 51-51 tie and the Crusaders outscored NewCath 11-2 over the final 1:51 of the game to rally for an eventual 56-51 victory.

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St. Henry (21-6), which lost to NewCath in the All “A” Classic 40-24, made four technical free throws in the final second when NewCath coach Ron Dawn was assessed a technical for arguing and then the Thoroughbreds were assessed another for taking too many timeouts.

“I think when you get beat by a team badly like we did in the All ‘A’ finals that’s all the more revenge that you want,” said Fugate, who finished with 19 points, eight in the last 2:05 of the game. “Today we had a little extra motivation, because we wanted to get something back.”

NewCath (17-8) led for almost the entire second half and was on top 45-40 with 4:30 left in the game following two free throws by sophomore center Nicole Kiernan, who finished with a game-high 27 points, 17 in the second half, including 15 of the Thoroughbreds’ first 19 of the half.

NewCath’s lead was 49-45 with just under two minutes left before St. Henry senior forward Jessica Knaley, who finished with 19 points, made a layup with 1:27 left, and Fugate’s steal and layup with 1:05 remaining tied it at 49-49.

St. Henry coach Brian Coburn chose to foul NewCath senior point guard Olivia Huber with 42 seconds left, forcing a one-and-one free throw situation.

“We didn’t want it to come down to the last second where they throw ball inside to (Kiernan),” said Coburn. “She’s such a special player. We were just afraid she would be able to make a play down there and put it in the basket or get fouled or both and I didn’t want that happening with a couple of seconds left.”

Huber missed the front end of the bonus.

Fugate then missed a runner with 25 seconds left, but Knaley saved the rebound to junior guard Kelly Coburn, who banked it in to put St. Henry in front 51-49 with 20 seconds remaining.

Kiernan was fouled with 6.9 seconds left and coolly made both free throws to tie it at 51-51 to set up a wild finish.

NewCath had two fouls to give before putting St. Henry in the bonus and committed both with 4.4 seconds to play. Fugate then took the inbounds pass, and was bumped by Huber near midcourt leading to a one-and-one opportunity with two seconds left.

“I was trying to block everything out and (senior) Jill Bauer came up to me and said, ‘Annie it’s just like practice,’” said Fugate. “I get worked up and get a little excited so it’s nice to have someone to calm me down.”

After making the first free throw, Fugate missed the second. NewCath senior forward Jamie Kohls grabbed the rebound and Dawn quickly called timeout. A second came off the clock on the play, leading to Dawn arguing about either that an extra second should be added or about Huber’s foul, and being assessed the technical foul. The team drew another when Dawn took another timeout he didn’t have.

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