Girls basketball: Hawks narrowly survive Rockets' Senior Day scare

Saturday afternoon at Tabor Gym, Oregon did not apply much pressure – and narrowly escaped with a 44-42 Big Northern West win on the Rockets’ Senior Day.

“Everybody’s got adrenaline on their Senior Night, so we knew they were going to come out and be really aggressive,” said the Hawks’ Sam Lambrigtsen, who scored a game-high 21 points. “We’ve got big conference championship games coming up, so this is a big win for us.”

Fresh off a 43-point loss to Byron on Thursday, Rock Falls (11-14, 4-6) trailed Oregon much of the first 2½ quarters, but stayed within striking distance. The Hawks thumped the Rockets 64-48 in December.

“We knew we were going to have a battle the whole time,” Oregon coach Kristy Eckardt said. “It came right down to the end, like it usually does when we play here.”

In the third quarter, the Rockets struck, using an 11-0 burst to take a 38-32 lead with just over 2 minutes left in the period.

Aubree Johnson, who notched team highs of nine points and six steals, scored the first five points of the flurry. First, she came up with a steal and took it to the basket. Then she scored off a teammate’s steal and turned it into a three-point play.

“I definitely felt more fired up,” Johnson, a senior, said of Senior Day. “And, my cross country coach was here watching me for the first time, and I wanted to show her that I was good.”

Morgan Mammosser (8 points) gave Rock Falls its first lead since 1-0, her bucket from the right wing making it 34-32 with 3:12 left in the quarter. Jessica Wind added a hoop off an inbounds pass under the basket, and Mammosser drove the lane for a field goal to give the Rockets a six-point lead with 2:13 left in the period.

Oregon (21-5, 9-1) finally ended a nearly 4-minute drought, closing the quarter with a 7-0 burst that included a Bree Tourtillott bucket in the lane, a three-point play on a weaving drive by Lambrigtsen, and two Lambrigtsen free throws. The Hawks led 39-38 heading to the fourth quarter.