Maringer's late basket lifts Danbury

DANBURY TWP. — Maria Maringer had the final say. After Da'Cariya Lanier put Port Clinton up with 30 seconds to play, the Danbury senior answered with the game-winning shot with nine seconds to go. Danbury then fended off the Redskins one last time to claim a 49-48 non-league girls basketball win Tuesday night. "I let them come down and play because we feel like we're a good team that makes good decisions," Danbury coach Joe Miller said. "I didn't want to take away the opportunity to get a transition bucket. When that didn't work, we called timeout to go to a particular play. "The execution was outstanding." Up 49-48, the Lakers (1-0) called a timeout after Port Clinton's timeout with 4.2 seconds left. The Redskins (1-1) inbounded the ball to Olivia Emerson, who hustled up court. With Lanier out of the play, Emerson's shot from the foul line missed, allowing Danbury the win. "We made an adjustment," PC coach Kevin Belden said. "They were doubling DC there, so we had her take the ball out. We had two different options out of it. We were going to be able to tell which option was going to work right away. "The option we went with was to get the ball to Emerson," he added. "She got down there. With four seconds left, you ask her to get a shot up and she got a decent shot off. It was just a little short." It looked like Lanier delivered the dagger. She scored off an offensive rebound with 1:50 to play to bring PC within 47-46. Danbury milked the clock before Michaela Harris was fouled with 54.4 seconds to go. She missed both attempts and Port Clinton used another timeout with 47.8 seconds to play. They got the ball to Lanier, who knifed through traffic and scored on a runner in the lane to give the Redskins a 48-47 advantage. It looked like PC was going to run away with things earlier. The Redskins scored the final eight points of the third quarter and extended their lead to 44-37 on a Madelyn Cornell jumper in the fourth quarter. Danbury was not to be denied, though. Ella McDonald answered on the other end before Maringer knocked in a pair of free throws. Harris knotted the game at 44 with a triple with 5:16 remaining before Maringer scored to give the Lakers the lead back. Port Clinton played without junior Christiona Fenton, who Belden said was home sick. The Redskins did not substitute the whole game until Erieyonna Buckley fouled out with 2:41 left. Kelly Uhnick split two free throws on the foul out to push Danbury up 47-44. "We were down 42-36, so I give our kids a lot of credit for not quitting and fighting," Miller said. "We were able to get it done at the very end of the game. Sometimes it is just good to win. Port Clinton played excellent." Danbury led 16-12 after one quarter and was able to extend the margin a bit in the second quarter. Maci Brown canned a 3 before Mia McDonald scored to make it 29-20. Lanier kept her team in it with a triple at the buzzer to get PC within six points at halftime. "I think we fell in love with our jump shot maybe a little too much," Miller said. "We thought we were going to hit a bunch in the second half, too. As the game progresses, your legs get tired. We kept telling them to get to the basket." The third quarter belonged to the Redskins as they used a 6-1 run to get within 32-29. After Maringer scored for Danbury, Spencer hit two more 3s, Buckley scored after a steal and assist by Lanier, and Emerson's triple put Port Clinton up 40-36. Lanier finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Spencer added 14 points and eight rebounds. Buckley scored nine points and Emerson snatched eight rebounds. "We decided to start in a 2-3 zone just for the simple fact we knew the game would be long and with having five bodies that we knew were going to play most of the game," Belden said. "We didn't get out there fast enough on those shots." Danbury could have made things easier on itself at the foul line. The Lakers made just 6-of-19 freebies. "That's not us," Miller said. "Last year as a team, I think we were first or second in the league in free throws right at 60 percent as a team. I don't expect that to be an issue moving forward." Maringer topped Danbury with 14 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Ella McDonald tallied 13 points and nine rebounds and Brown had eight points and 11 rebounds. The Lakers jump right into the deep end of Sandusky Bay Conference River Division play starting Thursday. The Lakers host Hopewell-London -- a district championship team from last year -- before facing defending league champ Lakota on Saturday. "There's no mercy in the SBC River," Miller said. "I think there's five or six teams that can win the league. It is not going to be easy. We have a lot of work to do in order to beat someone at the end." Port Clinton Olivia Spencer 5 0-2 14, Madelyn Cornell 2 0-0 4, Erieyonna Buckley 3 3-4 9, DC Lanier 5 4-4 15, Olivia Emerson 2 0-0 6. TOTALS 17 7-10 46 Danbury Maci Brown 3 0-0 8, Kelly Uhnick 0 1-2 1, Mia McDonald 2 1-4 5, Ella McDonald 5 0-0 13, Maria Maringer 5 4-7 14, Michaela Harris 3 0-4 8. TOTALS 18 6-20 49 Port Clinton 12 11 17 8 -- 48Danbury 16 13 5 13 -- 49 Three-point goals: PC 7 (Spencer 4, Emerson 2, Lanier); Danbury 7 (E. McDonald 3, Brown 2, Harris 2)