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Michelle Roberts made a free throw with 1.6 seconds remaining to lift the Collins Titans to a 44-43 victory over the South Oldham Dragons in Eighth Region quarterfinals action Wednesday night at North Oldham High School in Goshen. Roberts led the Titans with 13 points, including five in the final 3:29.

South Oldham had defeated Collins 62-44 on Jan. 22.

"We played with more intensity," said Collins head coach Phillip Conder. " "... Our focus all week has been on rebounding and trying to limit turnovers. We had to pick up some junk points."

It was an ugly first period as Collins led 8-4 after eight minutes. Play picked up in the second, with South Oldham cutting the lead to 19-17 at halftime, thanks to a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left by Sydney Jones, who scored a game-high 17 points for South Oldham.

Jones led the Dragons on an 8-0 run to start the second half with a jumper, two free throws and a 3-pointer to give South Oldham a 25-19 lead.

Whitney Pullen scored one of her 12 points to get Collins in the scoring column with 4:34 left in the third period. Then Aaliyah Wells added two of her 12 points on a steal and a layup to cut it to three. Roberts, Pullen and Wells combined for 37 of Collins' 44 points.

"We haven't had balanced scoring all year," said Conder. "One game somebody would step up and someone else the next game. But tonight Whitney had a fantastic game. Best game she's played all year."

South Oldham entered the final period with a 32-30 lead. From that point on, every Dragon basket was answered with points by the Titans. With 1:55 remaining Wells hit two free throws to tie the game at 43. The teams traded timeouts and in the final minute turned it over a combined three times. But with five seconds left Roberts corralled a rebound and sprinted down court. She was fouled by Jones and calmly stepped to the line and sank the first shot. She missed the second on purpose, but got the rebound to run out the clock.

"We missed some free throws early in the fourth quarter but we hit the one when it really counted," said Conder. "The one we missed we wanted to miss. She did it perfectly and it worked out really well."

Collins 8 11 11 14 - 44
So. Oldham 4 13 15 11 - 43

Collins (16-14) - Roberts 13, Wells 12, Pullen 12, Vogel 3, Rankin 2, Buckmaster 2.

South Oldham (15-15) - Jones 17, Beaudrie 7, Sedoris 6, Mullins 5, Taylor 4, VanZant 4.

3-point goals - Jones 4, Mullins, Roberts.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/louisville/ar...3302270132