Kristeva Rowe made only one basket from the floor in Marietta College's 68-64 triumph over visiting Otterbein University Saturday.
But, oh my, was it a dandy of a deuce, and it came at a very opportune moment in the game.
Here's what happened.
With the shot clock winding down late in the second half and the Lady Pioneers trailing by a point (53-52), Rowe - a 5-foot-6 sophomore wing from Toledo's Sylvania Southview - received a pass and had no choice but to launch a desperation shot from the perimeter.
Shot?
Actually, it was more like a throw with a degree of difficulty. And, somehow, the ball swished the net cleanly to put Marietta back in front at the 5:14 mark.
Needless to say, there were several oohs and aahs from the Ban Johnson Arena crowd and a lot of smiles on the Lady Pioneer side.
"That was huge," said fourth-year Marietta College women's head basketball coach Jill Meiring. "She just flung it with her right hand. She's so athletic.
"Big plays like that take it out of the other team. Usually, it happens to us, but this time we put it on them. It was great to see."
Otterbein coach Connie Richardson could only shake her head.
"That was a tough one there," she said of Rowe's basket. "But you know we did that to ourselves a couple of other times when the shot clock was down, and we'd foul."
Mind you, if Rowe had been fouled on that shot by a Lady Cardinal defender, she'd already converted two freebies earlier in the first half. And, as a team, the Lady Pioneers were 22 of 28 from the charity stripe in the game.
"Marietta's a good free-throw shooting team," Richardson said, "and we didn't want to put them at the line."
Interestingly, after Rowe's Hail Mary bucket, Marietta never looked back, and was able to stretch its lead to seven points with under a minute remaining in the contest.
"It was awesome," said MC freshman starter Paige Lamb of Rowe's basket. "It definitely got the momentum going for us. It's exciting."
Lady Pioneer post Aleisha Guiler agreed and added, "It was a good luck shot."
Too bad an ESPN film crew wasn't on hand. Rowe's bucket definitely would've qualified as a Top 10 play of the week.
Rowe, incidentally, finished the game with four points on one of four from the field.
"I think she thinks too much sometimes when she plays," Meiring said. "She misses some shots that she probably should make, and makes the ones that there's no way she should make."
Ron Johnston is the Marietta Times sports editor and can be reached at 376-5441 or at rjohnston@mariettatimes.com
