Elma heads to trophy round with OT win over Meridian

The Elma Eagles rallied in the fourth quarter to tie the game and then they grabbed the 50-47 overtime victory over the Meridian Trojans.

The Eagles were down 34-27 heading to the fourth quarter and at one point were down eight in the fourth before storming back to force overtime.

Evergreen League MVP Jalyn Sackrider led Elma with 18 points in the game and she led the comeback with nine points in the fourth quarter.

Meridian fouled out three players and had others in foul trouble, sending the Eagles to the free throw line 37 times and Elma converted 26 of those attempts.

Those free throws were big in the fourth quarter and in overtime as Elma was 12 for 17 from the line in the final two periods.

That included Jillian Bieker’s two free throws to take the lead in overtime with less than 20 seconds remaining.

Those were her only points on the night but they could not have come at a bigger moment.

Meridian would then miss their attempts to tie and Molly Johnston would grab a rebound and get fouled with about five seconds left.

She hit one of the two free throws to push the lead to three and the Trojans last second attempt failed.

Sackrider added seven rebounds and three blocks to her team high point total, Johnston followed with 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Kali Rambo added eight points and 11 rebounds.

Kayli Johnson led the team with four steals.

Jolee Sipma led Meridian with a game high 20 points in the losing effort.

Elma takes on Bellevue Christian bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. to decide who takes fourth and sixth place respectively.

Both teams will come home with a State Tournament trophy.

Catch all the action on 1490 AM and live online at 1490KWOK.com.