JUDA - Barneveld's Hailey Cannoy and Madison Laube both were major headaches for the Juda girls basketball team a year ago, so coach Curt Brown's Panthers paid extra attention to the duo in preparing for Thursday's Six Rivers East Conference showdown.
Brown and Co. can add Rachel Slaney to the list when they game plan for the rematch.
The freshman forward dominated for the first three quarters and Laube was nails in the final minute as Barneveld survived blowing a 14-point third-quarter lead and handed Juda its first loss, 54-48.
Slaney scored a game-high 21 points before being shut out in the fourth quarter and Laube, a junior, finished with 17 - including the last six points of the game after Juda (6-1, 2-1 Six Rivers East) had battled back from a 40-26 deficit midway through the third quarter.
Brown wore the frustration on his face after watching the freshman provide the spark for Eagles coach Jim Myers' 600th victory
"They have so many weapons," said Brown, whose team surely will drop from the No. 6 spot in the Division 5 state rankings. Barneveld was the first team outside the top 10 in Division 5 this week.
"Last year Hailey Cannoy was one of the main reasons we lost up there in the playoffs, and Madison Laube beat us by herself in the first two (regular-season) games," Brown said. "Now a freshman comes in ... we try to game plan for as many girls as we can. We knew she had a good scoring average, but a lot of her points are hustle points. That's just kind of the way it went."
Slaney scored seven points in the first quarter and eight in the second as the Eagles (6-1, 3-0) took a 36-24 lead into halftime.
"I was pumped for this game," Slaney said. "It was the first really, really big game of my freshman year and I just tried my best. It's very big. We wanted to beat Juda a lot."
Slaney and Laube both scored six points in Barneveld's 15-8 run to close the first half - Laube putting the finishing touch on the spurt with a 28-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We played a pretty poor second quarter and made some uncharacteristic mistakes," Brown said.
Juda pulled within 44-35 entering the fourth quarter, then used a 13-4 spurt to start the final quarter. Jessica Rackow scored the last five points of the run on a 3-pointer and two free throws to tie the game at 48 with 1 minute, 57 seconds left.
Laube's layup with 56 seconds left broke the deadlock, and she went 4 of 4 from the foul line in the final 24 seconds to ice it for Barneveld.
"It feels great because we knew coming in this was going to be a quality Juda team," said Myers, whose team's sticky zone made quality shots tough to come by for the Panthers.
"We tried to limit them as much as we could to one shot," Myers added. "We paid a lot of attention to Ellen (Kiser) and she still made some shots. Probably more than anything is we made some shots on the other side and that was big for us."
Kiser scored 18 points and C.J. Dunwiddie added 11 for Juda. The Panthers were 9 of 17 from the foul line to Barneveld's 15 of 18 - including 6-for-6 in the fourth quarter.
"Frustration," Brown said of another loss to Barneveld. "I told the girls, 'We played them once, now when we play them again we know what to do."
Getting a defender on Slaney figures to be near the top of the list.
Brown and Co. can add Rachel Slaney to the list when they game plan for the rematch.
The freshman forward dominated for the first three quarters and Laube was nails in the final minute as Barneveld survived blowing a 14-point third-quarter lead and handed Juda its first loss, 54-48.
Slaney scored a game-high 21 points before being shut out in the fourth quarter and Laube, a junior, finished with 17 - including the last six points of the game after Juda (6-1, 2-1 Six Rivers East) had battled back from a 40-26 deficit midway through the third quarter.
Brown wore the frustration on his face after watching the freshman provide the spark for Eagles coach Jim Myers' 600th victory
"They have so many weapons," said Brown, whose team surely will drop from the No. 6 spot in the Division 5 state rankings. Barneveld was the first team outside the top 10 in Division 5 this week.
"Last year Hailey Cannoy was one of the main reasons we lost up there in the playoffs, and Madison Laube beat us by herself in the first two (regular-season) games," Brown said. "Now a freshman comes in ... we try to game plan for as many girls as we can. We knew she had a good scoring average, but a lot of her points are hustle points. That's just kind of the way it went."
Slaney scored seven points in the first quarter and eight in the second as the Eagles (6-1, 3-0) took a 36-24 lead into halftime.
"I was pumped for this game," Slaney said. "It was the first really, really big game of my freshman year and I just tried my best. It's very big. We wanted to beat Juda a lot."
Slaney and Laube both scored six points in Barneveld's 15-8 run to close the first half - Laube putting the finishing touch on the spurt with a 28-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We played a pretty poor second quarter and made some uncharacteristic mistakes," Brown said.
Juda pulled within 44-35 entering the fourth quarter, then used a 13-4 spurt to start the final quarter. Jessica Rackow scored the last five points of the run on a 3-pointer and two free throws to tie the game at 48 with 1 minute, 57 seconds left.
Laube's layup with 56 seconds left broke the deadlock, and she went 4 of 4 from the foul line in the final 24 seconds to ice it for Barneveld.
"It feels great because we knew coming in this was going to be a quality Juda team," said Myers, whose team's sticky zone made quality shots tough to come by for the Panthers.
"We tried to limit them as much as we could to one shot," Myers added. "We paid a lot of attention to Ellen (Kiser) and she still made some shots. Probably more than anything is we made some shots on the other side and that was big for us."
Kiser scored 18 points and C.J. Dunwiddie added 11 for Juda. The Panthers were 9 of 17 from the foul line to Barneveld's 15 of 18 - including 6-for-6 in the fourth quarter.
"Frustration," Brown said of another loss to Barneveld. "I told the girls, 'We played them once, now when we play them again we know what to do."
Getting a defender on Slaney figures to be near the top of the list.
