Our Lady Rays Basketball Team squared off against the Bishop Verot Vikings Monday night, and it was a thriller.  Last time these two teams played the Vikings hit a buzzer-beater to beat our Rays by 1 point.  Our ladies had been waiting impatiently for redemption ever since losing that road game.

Monday night was the night and this time the Vikings came down to our house.  The first quarter turned into a rough defensive battle and the Vikings came out on top 9 to 8.  By halftime the sharp-shooting Vikings extended their lead to 23 to 17.  Unfortunately, the Rays did not figure anything out at halftime, and the Vikings extended their lead once again to 30 to 22 by the end of the third quarter.

At the beginning of the 4th quarter Rays coach Travis Barry claims something interesting happened with our team.  He said, “For the first time all season our girls did not seem frustrated or nervous to be behind.  They seemed to have a calm focus about them.  I realized this meant anything was possible and that we were still in this thing.”

Sure enough, the Rays proceeded to start outplaying the Vikings at both ends of the court.  Solid defense and rebounding by the trio of Payton Rice, Jocelyn Snover, and Cadence Snover combined with the sharp shooting of Michelle Armas and Kathryn Barry tied up the game.  In fact, the Rays outscored the Vikings 16 to 8 in the final period.  The score at the end of the fourth was 38-38.

The over-time period was a defensive war.  The only point scored in the period came on a foul shot by Michelle Armas with less than a 1:20 left in the period.  After that valuable point, our Rays played great defense and rebounded well.  The Rays then showed perfect poise and grit by stalling out the rest of the clock.  The final score was 39-38 in favor of the Rays.

After the game, MIA fan Chuck Nosal exclaimed, “There’s nothing better than an overtime game that goes in your favor.  That was a real nail biter!”

The Rays play again tomorrow night in the PCAC Conference Tournament versus the Shamrocks of Donahue academy.  They split with the Shamrocks this season and it should be exciting, because this time it’s win or go home.