An exceptionally unusual night ended with Class 2B Evergreen Lutheran escaping with a 45 - 39 non-league girls basketball victory against upset minded Class 1A independent Auburn Adventist Academy on Wednesday, Feb. 2, on the Lutheran's Des Moines campus.

Locked in a 39-39 deadlock, the Eagles (5-4 league, 7-10 overall) regained the lead for good on an Erica Hansen three-point seeking missile with just less than 50 seconds remaining in overtime.

"As soon as I shot, I knew it was good," exclaimed the ever confident Hansen, who scored seven game points. "We should have destroyed them, but we won."

The Eagles still had to negotiate the final seconds. Meyer missed two consecutive free throws before hauling in her own missed second try and being fouled. Making up for her previous tries, Meyer collected herself to swish two free throws home. No. 43 closed out the scoring on a fee throw.

Katie Weber commandeered a clutch performance in the four-minute overtime. Fouled in the act of shooting in the corner, Weber shot an air ball on the first attempt, but regrouped to swish home the next chance as 3:13 showed on the scoreboard clock.

Next, the Eagle athlete grabbed a key rebound and capitalized on an Adventist traveling by hitting nothing but inside net from the right side with 1:26 remaining to extend the Evergreen Lutheran margin to 39-36.

Naomi Prasad countered for Auburn Adventist, tieing the score at 39-all 14 seconds later to set up the Hansen heroics abetted by cashed in free throws.

"We kept our heads in this one and finished by making our free throws," said Meyer, who spearheaded a clutch fourth quarter with eight points in addition to a game high 14 points. Meyer also collected nine critical caroms.

From the outset, the teams fought hard in the midst of numerous turnovers and fouls with consistently good shooting being absent. Evergreen Lutheran established leads of up to six points, but Auburn Adventist kept rallying back to keep the game close.

Gaining their first lead of the game, the Falcons erased a 22-21 deficit to lead 26-22 after three quarters. Baskets by Meyer and Dallas Parker tied the game at 28-all before the Eagles gained leads of four points twice.

Auburn Adventist came back again to erase a 34-30 EL lead. Parker's free throw had Evergreen Lutheran in a 36-34 advantage with 34.3 seconds remaining in regulation, but Janessa Blaser's put back basket 19 seconds later sent the game into overtime.

Parker finished with 10 points while Weber closed out with eight Eagle points and had five rebounds. Kailey Fuegmann earned five steals. Heather Schmeickel grabbed four steals.

Besides the overtime, this game was notable for the absence of long-time head coach Jeff Kurbis. For this season, Kurbis is also the head coach of the boys basketball team, so every effort has been made to schedule boys and girls games on different nights or hold home doubleheaders. On this night, Kurbis was at the Auburn Adventist Academy, coaching the boys team.

"We are a bit wounded now because we're missing key leaders," said assistant coach Mark Schewe, who facilitated the strategy in the absence of Kurbis. "This was a nice win for the girls. We knocked down the free throws and sealed the deal in the end."

Megume Poetter has been out of action with an injury incurred during the first half on Dec. 2, while Erika Herman sat out on Tuesday after rolling an ankle on Monday. Both players were slated to play the next game.

Free throw shooting has been a factor in the Eagles' inconsistency as 13-of-30 from the charity line indicated on Wednesday.

Evergreen Lutheran appears to be locked into fourth place of the Class 2B SeaTac League, which means it would play first place Northwest 1A/2B League Darrington in the first round of the Tri-District tournament held at Chief Leschi Schools in Puyallup.