No. 2 Woodinville weathers rally from No. 3 Inglemoor, prevails in overtime

Just call this one the “Senior Save.”

The only senior on the Woodinville girls basketball team, Jaela Eggers, made her last shot the biggest shot as the host Falcons held off Inglemoor to grab an important early season KingCo 4A victory in overtime, 66-62.

“That was the dagger,” Woodinville coach Scott Bullock said of Eggers’ three-pointer that gave the Falcons a 66-58 lead with 2 minutes, 16 seconds left in the extra period.

“It was really nerve-wracking,” Eggers admitted. “It definitely was a scary moment. I was actually looking for Mia (Hughes), and thought she would be there. Then I saw the shot and took it.”

Eggers had the biggest three of the game, but No. 3 Inglemoor made things interesting when the Vikings began hitting from long distance all over the court in the third quarter.

Until Lucy Young made a three-pointer for Inglemoor (4-1, 2-1 KingCo) with 2:57 left in the quarter, No. 2 Woodinville (6-0, 4-0) had controlled this one. Young’s shot cut into what was a 44-28 lead.

But that shot kicked off a 21-4 run for the Vikings that culminated with Abby Haller’s layup with 5:21 remaining in regulation. Haller’s score gave Inglemoor a 49-48 lead, the Vikings’ first since they led it 1-0.

From that moment until the fourth-quarter buzzer sounded, Inglemoor would lead it three more times, and there would be four ties.

“We’re definitely a second-half team,” Inglemoor coach Kristina Schumacher said. “We have the tools to get it going. We have really good shooters. We did a really great job of executing in the second half.”

The Vikings made seven three-pointers in the second half and tallied nine for the game. Katelyn Laccinole made four from long distance to finish with 12 points, while Young made three three-pointers in the second half en route to her 14 points.

Haller had 17 to pace Inglemoor.

It wasn’t enough to beat out a huge performance from Hughes, who had 23 points to lead all scorers.

Hughes scored 10 of those points during a second quarter that saw Woodinville extend a slim 13-9 lead after the first eight minutes to as much as 15 — when Hughes scored with 2:18 left in the first half to make it 31-16.

Inglemoor got the deficit back to 33-23 at the half, before the Falcons extended it to a 16-point advantage before Inglemoor’s comeback.

“Mia was a warrior all night,” Bullock said.

Veronica Sheffey added 18 for Woodinville, including seven of the 10 in overtime.

“We should have made it a little easier on ourselves,” Bullock said. “But they were on fire. Our girls weathered the storm. Tonight was a big KingCo game, against one of the more challenging teams in our league. And a crosstown rival. It was a fun one.”

And for Woodinville, a victorious one thanks in part to the big shot from Eggers, who had a total of nine points, that iced it for Woodinville.

Woodinville has a nonconference game on Saturday against Lynden Christian before the team heads to California on Dec. 26 for a tournament.