Nazareth fends off Claude to return to state girls basketball tournament

LEVELLAND — It's odd for a dynastic girls high school basketball program to seem like the underdog, but that was the case much of the year for the Nazareth Swiftettes.

Between injuries, the always high expectations, last year's disappointing finish and a team full of players taking on much more responsibility, the Swiftettes, to some extent, felt like they were an afterthought.

Once again, there's no looking past the Swiftettes anymore.

Bobbie Fouquet missed the first of two free throws with 0.3 seconds left, intentionally missed the second and Nazareth held on tight for a 26-24 victory over Claude in the Region I-1A championship game on Saturday afternoon in the Texan Dome. A defensive battle where points were hard to come by, each team needed whatever they could get on the scoreboard.

Nazareth, as it has for decades, found a way to get just enough for the win.

"I'm so proud of my teammates," Nazareth's Presley Wheeler said. "We have gone through so much adversity this year and just to come out and win the game. ... We really kept it in our heads just to stay calm and stay together and play for each other."

Getting the win was anything but easy.

Despite an 11-2 lead after the first quarter, Nazareth (29-9) was limited to just a single free throw in the second, allowing the lengthy Lady Mustangs to claw back in front 16-12 at halftime.

The Swiftettes, though, returned the favor in the second half, using its size to limit the Lady Mustangs to just a single point of its own in the third quarter.

Wheeler's 3-pointer midway through the fourth provided Nazareth a 23-20 advantage, which was quickly erased by a 3 from Claude's Fouquet. Tatum Peterson cleaned up an offensive board for the basket with about three minutes left in regulation. From there, it was about holding on for dear life.

"We didn't want it to be a lot of up and down,' Nazareth coach Eric Schilling said. "We didn't think that would fit us real well. We knew we're going to defend and we wanted them to run offense for a long time, and then offensively, for us especially, once we got a lead we wanted to be extremely patient."

Claude (23-11) had one final chance 12.9 seconds left. Down 26-24, Fouquet looked for an opening to drive to the lane. As was the case most of the game, Nazareth's steely defender Caroline Myrick stood in her way. With time winding down, Fouquet threw up a contested shot that missed, but Myrick was called for the foul and 0.3 seconds were put back on the clock.

Schilling said when Fouquet stepped to the free throw line, he expected the game to go to overtime. Instead, Fourquet (team-high nine points) missed the first free throw, all but sealing the game for Nazareth.

Earlier in the season, Wheeler said she didn't feel like last year's team was hungry enough, didn't want it enough. To her, that was part of the reason why the Swiftettes lost to eventual state champion Sands in the region semifinals. A year after that disappointment, Nazareth is back on top, making its ninth appearance in the state tournament in the last decade.

"We definitely had something to prove," Wheeler said. "We had a chip on our shoulder. We just told each other we're just playing for each other. We're just gonna go out there and compete and play for each other and we were starving for a win."

Region I-1A Girls Basketball Championship

Nazareth 26, Claude 24

Nazareth 11 1 7 8 — 26

Claude 2 14 3 9 — 24

Nazareth (29-9) — Presley Wheeler 6, Brooklyn Birkenfeld 11, Tatum Peterson 4, Chloe Birkenfeld 1, Iris Schilderink 4.

Claude (23-11) — Layla Godfrey 5, Bobbie Fouquet 9, Alexis Eddleman 5, Alison Stone 2, Andi Holland 2.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Nazareth fends off Claude to return to state girls basketball tournament