No room to breathe: Viqueens slip past Essex

In a clash of Corner Conference titans, the Essex Trojanettes were inches from upsetting the sixth-ranked Stanton Viqueens, but a Tara Maher buzzer-beating three-point attempt rattled off the front of the rim in the 40-37 Stanton win.

Both teams were focused on stopping their opposite’s center, as Essex’s Joscelyn Coleman and Stanton’s Kadie Subbert led their respective team in scoring last year and are expected to be the dominant forces again, this season.

Even with the extra attention of their opposing defense, Coleman and Subbert still led their teams in scoring with 18 and 12 points, respectively.

Stanton freshmen Kara Allen and Rachel Sorensen along with senior Jordan Sorensen stepped up as the Viqueens shared the wealth, combining for 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Essex led most of the game by a small margin but lost their lead with five minutes left in the game as Subbert made a three-pointer and converted a three-point play, making a free throw after making a layup, pulling the lead to 32-26.

The Trojanettes relied on the late free throws of Coleman (eight of 10) and Felicia Monson (four of nine) and the extra scoring of Maher (11 points) to pull within three of the Viqueens with less than 10 seconds remaining.

“We called timeout and talked about our number-one thing was to not let them get the three-point shot off,” Stanton Head Coach Bruce Subbert said about the last few seconds of the game. “We didn’t exactly do that, with (Maher) getting the shot off at the last second, but at least we didn’t give her a really clean look.”

The Viqueens kept their sixth-ranked status in the state with their second win of the season.

The Trojanettes drop to 1-2 on the season with the loss as the two teams will meet again Jan. 29, but may sooner than that in the Corner Conference Tournament, which is scheduled for Jan. 18-23.