Jessica Case found herself in the moment that players dream about on Tuesday, and she made sure the dream didn’t turn into a nightmare.
The Westmont junior got to the free-throw line with two seconds left and her team down by one to arch-rival Biola, then promptly sank both free throws to give the No. 13 Warriors a dramatic 67-66 victory, their seventh in a row and most dramatic of the season.
“Not much, really,” said Case — an 87-percent free-throw shooter — when asked what was going through her mind when she stepped to the line. “I’m pretty confident in my free throws and I knew they were going in, so I just had to keep my mind clear and not let it get to me.”
She hit all seven of her attempts on the night and had a team-high 16 points despite a 4-for-15 mark from the field.
No. 20 Biola (16-9, 8-8 GSAC) actually had the ball for an inbounds play with three seconds remaining, but Angel Blanco and Ali Mooty trapped Biola’s Jennifer French, who let it slip off her foot and out of bounds. Case then made a backdoor cut on the inbounds and was fouled to set up the pressure-cooker moment.
“That was a nail-biter. It was a game that seemed like we’d lost multiple times,” said sling-armed coach Kirsten Moore, still dealing with pain after breaking her elbow on a bike ride over the weekend.
“The biggest thing I can say about my team is that never in my girls’ eyes did I see any doubt that we were going to win, even when we were down with just a few seconds left.”
Westmont (21-3, 13-3 GSAC) was up 32-23 at the half, and Blanco converted with a jumper off of an offensive rebound to make it an 11-point lead to get the second period going. But Biola got right back in the game, mounting a 24-10 run over the next nine minutes, capped by a pair of treys from French to give the Eagles a 49-44 lead with just over 10 minutes to play. The Warriors didn’t take the lead again until Case’s clutch trip to the charity stripe.
Megann Alberts led Biola with 21 points and seven boards. The two teams finished dead-even with 42 rebounds apiece, but Westmont had 21 offensive boards to Biola’s 10.
