Wolverines stun No. 4 Panorama in walk-off win

Down two points with 3.3 seconds remaining in the game, Nodaway Valley junior Madison Fry inbounded the ball and sophomore Lindsey Davis delivered on a half-court shot that beat the buzzer for the Wolverine girls basketball team to defeat Class 2A No. 4 Panorama Saturday afternoon, 55-54.

The Wolverines take the win as a confidence booster two-thirds of the way through the season.

Nodaway Valley moved to 11-3 overall and 6-1 in the Pride of Iowa Conference.

The game was Panorama’s first loss of the season.

“I got the ball and said ‘I’ve gotta take it now’ because a pass would take too much time,” said Davis of the game winning shot, which came right out of a timeout. “I took a couple dribbles, looked up at the clock and shot it, because that’s the best thing that could happen. It went in.”

Fry was glad to find Davis open on the inbound play as the Panthers were altogether defending it well.

“We drew up a play, I got it into Lindsey, and Lindsey did the rest,” Fry said. “I have a lot of confidence in all my teammates. We all work work hard in practice and I’d trust any of them to make a shot like that.”

The visiting Panthers led 43-41 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

In the fourth, there were five different lead changes between the teams. While the Wolverines weren’t pleased with how they shot free throws as a whole, they were 5-of-6 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

Senior Maddax DeVault hit two big free throws after she was fouled driving to the basket, tying the game late at 52.

This game featured Class 2A’s top two scorers — DeVault and Panorama senior Payton Beckman — and Beckman gave her Panthers a 54-52 lead on a layup which prompted NV’s timeout then game-winning play.

“We definitely didn’t play a perfect game — we had a lot of fouls and turnovers that shouldn’t have happened that we need to work on — but I’m really proud of how we battled,” DeVault said. “They’d score then we’d score and come back right away. I’m proud of us, and we needed that win big time.”

The Wolverines led 15-11 after the first quarter and 29-27 at halftime. DeVault canned three first-half 3-pointers and two more after the break, finishing with 21 points. Davis contributed 13 points, eight coming in the second half.

Junior Annika Nelson had nine rebounds while DeVault and Jorja Holliday had five each. Fry had four assists.

“This proves a point that we’ve been trying to tell our kids, and that’s that you don’t have to play perfect, you have to play hard,” Eisbach said. “We had 29 turnovers, so in essence we shouldn’t have needed a buzzer beater to win the game, but we didn’t play our greatest, we had some foul trouble and found a way instead of making excuses.”

Nodaway Valley soundly defeated East Union 71-27 in a game that was pushed up to Thursday due to expected winter weather Friday.

The Wolverines led 18-8 at the end of the first quarter and widened the lead to 51-22 at halftime, never looking back in the win that only became more dramatic after halftime.

Davis had 22 points and five assists. DeVault had nine points and seven assists. Nelson had 12 rebounds.

Key in the middle portions of the game was Holliday’s ability to drive the lane and score in the post. She scored a career-high 15 points on the night.

“In the second quarter we really got it together, started finding our groove and the open man,” Holliday said. “We were really talking, telling each other who is open and passing the ball around well.”