Addie Siemsen's buzzer-beater lifts Kernel girls basketball to season-opening win over Huron
Dec. 10—HURON, S.D. — They were her only points of the night, but they couldn't have come at a better time.
It was freshman Addie Siemsen who beat the buzzer, sinking a jump shot from the right wing with her foot on the 3-point line in a tie game to give the Kernels a 46-44 season-opening win on the road over Huron.
"I kind of just chucked it up there and hoped for the best," Siemsen said of her game-winning shot. "It just doesn't feel real."
The play wasn't originally designed for Siemsen to get the shot. After Sawyer Stoebner received the inbound pass from Siemsen, Stoebner was supposed to drive to the basket. But a double team came and she handed the ball to Siemsen, who took one dribble, pulled up and nailed the shot.
"I was really scared when she gave me the ball," Siemsen remembered. "I think the only reason it went in was because I didn't think about it."
The Kernels found themselves deadlocked at 44 with the Tigers after Huron scooped up a turnover and converted on a fast-break layup to knot the game up with 14 seconds left. It was the first time the game had been tied since the opening tip.
That turnover just so happened to be committed by Siemsen, who very quickly redeemed herself with the first buzzer-beater she's ever made.
"All my teammates were like, 'Hey, you got the next one,'" Siemsen recalled of the huddle after her turnover. "I was just trying to forget about it and then I just made it."
Mitchell started the game on fire, as Lauren Van Overschelde hit two 3-pointers and Taylor Giblin knocked another down to open up a 9-0 lead. That early lead ballooned to an 11-point advantage at halftime that dissipated as the second half went on.
Mitchell's defense surrendered just four points in the first quarter, though, and Huron didn't get its second field goal of the game until halfway through the second quarter, and the Tigers scored just 13 first-half points.
"They started running some cutters through the middle and we weren't finding them until it was too late," head coach Dave Brooks said of the defense in the second half. "I like to think maybe the (defensive success in the) first half was a little bit of what we were doing."
Giblin led Mitchell in scoring with 13 points, while Van Overschelde and Sawyer Stoebner each picked up 10, as the Kernels shot 45.2% from the field and 41.2% from deep. Isabelle Ellwein picked up a game-high 14 points for Huron, with Hamtyn Heinz and Heavan Gainey both notching double figures at 12 and 10, respectively.
The two teams were deadlocked in the rebounding department, too, each bringing down 26. The battle on the glass was an area Brooks pointed prior to the game as a key if Mitchell wanted to win.
"Rebounding is going to be tough for us to win, so maybe a tie is a win for us," Brooks said. "Delana Henkel hit the boards well. ... I thought the kids rebounded pretty well."
After the first game under Dave Brooks as head coach, the Kernels open the season at 1-0, while Huron falls to 1-1. Mitchell's next contest comes on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at home against Watertown.
"The kids just didn't give up," Brooks said. "It just took everybody. The bench was into it. ... Everybody was in and did their part."
