A trip to Shullsburg on Feb. 7 yielded a loss for Darlington, 47-44, despite rallying from several double-figures deficits.

“We played hard and did a good job in many regards on our end, but we really struggled to finish around the rim,” Redbirds head coach Mike Flanagan said. 

Darlington (13-6) roared ahead in the first seven minutes of the night on a 12-4 run baskets from four different ballplayers. A field goal by Hailey Alt and pair of free throws from McKinley Russell hid the early goose egg for the Miners (13-7, 10-2 SRW). 

A sprint to the six minute mark saw the Redbirds go scoreless, while Hailey Alt followed another pair of McKinley Russell free throws with a wide open three. Soon after, a two by Addy Woodworth off a turnover, and a three from Isabelle Wiegel flipped the lead for the second of four times over the night. 

A Flanagan timeout was a forgone conclusion as his squad needed to reverse its change of fate.

The road to relief didn’t take long. Catie Hartwig hit 1-of-2 shots from the charity stripe on a shooting foul, then flipped the lead with a baseline layup off a Shullsburg turnover. A score from Lilly Ritchie wasn’t far behind as the game crested beyond the 4-minute mark. The junior shooting forward hit a turnaround jumper next to the hoop on an inbounds pass, putting Darlington ahead, 17-14.

Unfortunately, Hailey Alt fired back with a shot along the baseline at 3:26, with a pair of Addy Woodworth free throws ripping away the lead for the final time. Alexis Alt sent the half away with a 3-point play as 23.3 seconds showed on the clock.

Alexis Alt was hot out of the locker room as well, with a pair of 2-pointers a little over three minutes into the second frame. The Redbirds got their response as Maddie Gratz capped a 5-0 run from the top of the key, slimming the deficit to 25-24. 

But the Miners weathered the storm. They did most of their damage from the free throw line as they completely negated the 5-point trim on their lead, which preceded a Gratz free throw and a Ritchie bucket. 

As the minutes ticked off the clock, free throw after free throw continued to keep a Shullsburg squad in the green despite it draining just two field goals in the final 8:30 of the game. Meanwhile, missed shots and turnovers continued to shadow Darlington to the final buzzer, where a last-second heave from Gratz from pro range was just off the mark.

“Credit to Shullsburg’s defense and length, but we will need to find ways to convert opportunities in order to have success into the remainder of the season and tournament run,” Flanagan said. “The game was won at the free throw line. They were able to draw some fouls at crucial junctures. That being said, I can’t fault the effort, and even in the face of multiple double-digit deficits in the second half, we were able to put ourselves in a position to extend the game in the final moments. We will take the lessons that this loss offers and use it to get better moving forward.”

Gratz and Hartwig helmed a low-scoring effort from the Redbirds with 10 points apiece, while Sadie Goebel’s seven rebounds and six assists led all players.

“Very proud of this group and the way they fought through adversity early on in the game, and then played so very well on the defensive end of the court,” Miners head coach Nathan Russell said. “We have come a long way over the season on that side of the court. We purposefully had a very difficult non-conference schedule, and this game was one of the highlighted ones for us from the beginning of the season. Coach Flanagan has his team playing very well, and we feel very fortunate to have come out with the victory.”

Coach Russell’s team had two athletes — Hailey Alt (14 pts) and Alexis Alt (10 pts) — in double figures, with a pair — McKinley Russell (9 pts) and Addy Woodworth (8 pts) — close to the mark. Rebounds were headed up by a trio of Miners at five apiece — Courtney Thyen, Alexis Alt, and Emma Ragotzkie.

The loss for Darlington wouldn’t overshadow a win two nights prior at Southwestern (4-16, 0-11), 58-22. The Redbirds improved to 8-3 in the SWAL as they held the Wildcats to just 13 points over the first half, while outpacing them with a 31 point effort.

“We thought we could speed them up and make them play faster than they wanted to,” Flanagan said. “We were successful in that regard. We also got scoring contributions from multiple players, and were able to provide playing opportunities for everyone on our roster. It was a fun game in which our energy was high throughout.”

Usual suspects led scoring as Gratz and Ritchie posted 17-point efforts, though Gratz paced the team with five steals. Kayli Buschor joined the pair with 11 points and a team-best five assists, while Maicy Norgard put in a team-high nine rebounds.

Five matchups remained for Darlington, the foremost of them having come on Feb. 9 in a matchup against Dodgeville (8-12) before remaining home to host Iowa-Grant (4-16, 2-9) a night later. The Redbirds then travel to Boscobel (7-13, 3-8) on Feb. 13, followed by Barneveld (13-7) three nights later in a packed series of games.

As for the Six Rivers West team, they’re hot off a conference win over Potosi/Cassville (7-13, 4-8) on Feb. 5, 49-29, preceded by a non-conference win against Dodgeville (8-12) two nights prior, 65-36.

The Dodgers struggled to contain McKinley Russell (19 pts), Woodworth (12 pts), and Alexis Alt (11 pts). The leader of the three posted game-highs in rebounds (9) and assists (7).

Woodworth’s name topped the scoring charts with 16 points ahead of McKinley Russell (12 pts) and Hailey Alt (9 pts). Where the final of the trio made a bigger mark was a team-best 12 rebounds followed by nine from Alexis Alt as Shullsburg kept itself separated from second-placed Highland (14-6, 8-4) at 10-2 in conference play. 

Next up was exactly that for the Miners as they hosted the Cardinals in a title race-deciding road match on Feb. 10.

For coach Russell, the message to his team is a simple one — win.

“Win on Tuesday at Highland, and we will be conference champs by ourselves. We need to keep playing hungry and together to accomplish our first goal we set this season,” Russell said.