Sully Buttes escapes with victory in 2OT

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HURON — For the seventh straight year, the Sully Buttes Chargers will be playing in the Class “B” girls state basketball tournament.
But they had to work hard to make the 2018 trip happen.
It took a good deal of contribution off the Sully Buttes bench, some timely shot making and overcoming the loss of their senior leader for the Chargers to post a 59-56 come-from-behind, double-overtime win over a pesky group of Freeman Flyers at Huron Arena Thursday night.
Sully Buttes scored the first point of the game on a Rachel Guthmiller free throw, but never saw the lead again until midway through the fourth quarter, as a maroon clad ponytail brigade from Freeman came at the Chargers in waves.
The Flyers knocked down a trio of three-pointers, from three different players in the first quarter, as they raced to a 14-6 lead with two minutes in the period.
Ashley Glanzer, Josie Fuhrman and Karli Maske all drained bombs in the Freeman blitzkreig that put them up 16-10 at the quarter break.
But Sully Buttes is the two-time defending state champion for a reason and, behind Guthmiller’s leadership and a couple of slick buckets from Kendra Kleven and Lauren Wittler, cut the lead to thee points in the closings seconds of the half, before Jaimie Glanzer got free underneath at the buzzer for Freeman, to give the Flyers a 24-19 cushion at the break.
Throughout the first half, coach Curtis Sage had his Flyers pressing the Chargers man-to-man, the length of the court and as the second half began, the Flyers ramped up the pressure.
Freeman led 24-21 after a pair of Marinda Archer free throws for Sully Buttes, when Maske hit a three pointer, followed it up with an old-fashioned three-point play and then found a wide-open Fuhrman for another three from the wing to quickly put the lead at 10 following a pair of Kleven charity tosses.
But again, the defending champs rallied. outscoring the Flyers 6-2 over the final minute and a half of the quarter to trail by only six heading to the final period.

Sully Buttes scored the first eight points of the quarter and Guthmiller’s leaner in the lane gave them their first lead, at 37-35, since the opening moments of the game.
But Freeman got four straight free throws from Dayna Roth - who ended the game 9 of 12 from the stripe to take the lead back and, more importantly, force Guthmiller’s fourth foul.
From that point on the lead never was more for three for either team.
Ashley Glanzer hit a three pointer with 48 seconds left in regulation to force the first overtime, at 43-all, and the two teams traded haymakers throughout the first four-minute extra period. A basket from Wittler gave Sully Buttes a 51-48 lead with 1:38 to play, they watched Maske hit two charity tosses on Wittler’s fifth foul.
An inside  basket from Archer put the Chargers up by three again, at 53-50. Guthmiller had a chance to ice the game with 28 seconds left, but missed both ends of a two-shot foul.
Then Maske came to the rescue, as the 5-foot, 6-inch senior drained a three from her favorite spot on the left wing as the buzzer sounded to force the second extra period.
Neither team scored for the first two minutes of the second overtime, until Roth hit a free throw as Guthmiller committed her fifth foul, energizing the Freeman cheering section.
But the Chargers patiently worked the ball on offense, getting good looks inside as Klevin and Brooklynn Bradford took over the ball-handling duties for Sully Buttes. Defensively, the Chargers only allowed one shot through the second half and overtime as Sully Buttes outrebounded Freeman by 10 in the final 24 minutes.
Archer made a backet with 1:06 remaining to tie the score at 56-56, and the Chargers hit just enough free throws in the closing minutes to close out the win and punch their ticket to the Class “B” State Tournament next week in Aberdeen.
Guthmiller ended the night with a game-high 23 points, while Kleven added 12 and Archer owned the boards with 12 rebounds for Sully Buttes, which improves to 23-1 on the season.
For Freeman, Maske led the way with 19 points in her final game. Roth added 13 and Ashley Glanzer had 10 points.
Both Fuhrmann and Jaimie Glanzer had five rebounds as Freeman closes the book on a 17-7 season, with six of those losses coming to teams who will be playing in either the “A” or “B” state tournaments.

Sully-Buttes     10 19 29 43 56 59
Freeman         16 24 35 43 53 56
Sully-Buttes: Rachel Guthmiller 6 10-14 23; Kendra Kleven 2 8-12 12; Lauren Wittler 4 0-2 8; Brooklyn Bradford 2 4-6 8; Marinda Archer 3 2-3 8. Totals: 17 24-37 59.
Freeman: Karli Maske 6 3-4 19; Dayna Roth 2 9-12 13; Ashley Glanzer 4 0-2 10; Josie Fuhrmann 3 0-0 8; Hannah Eberts 1 0-0 2; Emily Miller 0 2-2 2; Jaimie Glanzer 1 0-0 2. Totals: 17 14-20 56.
FG: SB - 17-36 55%; FR - 8-25 23%. 3-pt FG: SB - 1-1 (Guthmiller); FR - 8-25 (Maske 4). Rebounds: SB - 37 (Archer 12); FR - 27 (Fuhrmann 5, Glanzer 5). Assists: SB - 3; FR - 4. TO: SB - 21; FR - 14. Steals: SB - 5; FR - 13. Fouls: SB - 18; FR - 28.

MIKE CARROLL/PLAINSMAN
Lauren Wittler of Sully Buttes dribbles past Freeman’s Hannah Eberts during their Class B Round of 16 game on Thursday at Huron Arena.