It appeared that Northwestern was going to hold for the final shot of the game, trailing by a single point with just over a minute remaining.

It turned out the Tigers were just waiting for the right shot.

After about 45 seconds ran off of the clock, Erika Thomas eventually found Leighanna Lister in the paint for the go-ahead bucket with just 18 seconds remaining.

“No, no,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch when asked if his team took the shot earlier than he wanted it to. “That was not the game plan. We told them to run a set out of the timeout and take the first available good look, but it sure looked like (we were holding for the last shot).”

Jim Thorpe threw away the ensuing inbound play, the Tigers hit a handful of foul shots, and Northwestern clawed its way to a 42-38 nonleague victory.

“We had a chance to win the basketball game and we just made some poor choices toward the end of the game,” Jim Thorpe head coach Rob Kovac said. “We completely missed her (Lister) in the middle of the paint and that’s inexcusable. We did such a great job defending her the whole night so it stings a little bit.”

One reason why the Olympians were in position to compete in the closing minutes was their first-half defense, holding Northwestern without a field goal in the second quarter. The second reason was Kayley Kovac’s offensive outburst during the second frame, when the Olympians went on a 10-0 run.

Jim Thorpe had a four-point advantage at intermission, but Northwestern made a critical adjustment during the break. The Tigers switched up their defense and forced eight turnovers in the third period.

“We run a lot of 1-3-1, but we didn’t want to show it right away,” Deutsch explained. “We saved it for later in the game when I thought it would be most effective. We were fortunate to make a couple more plays toward the end of the game.”

The Olympians’ Kayley Kovac scored a game-high 21 points, but Northwestern was well prepared for her.

“Something we stressed yesterday at practice was to step in, get your feet set, and take some charges,” said Deutsch. “I think it affected her (Kovac) a little bit toward the end, she wasn’t as willing to drive with four fouls. She’s going to score because she’s a good player, but I thought we made her work for everything.”

Deutsch knew that this road contest would be a huge battle for his young squad.

“I knew this was going to be a tough one,” he said. “If you’re judging this one off of style points – it wasn’t very stylish. It was a dogfight between two teams that played hard. It feels great, we have 16 girls in our program, 11 of them are freshman and sophomores. They’re getting great experience in these types of situations. I think we’re going to be a much better team toward the end of the year.”

In addition to dishing out the go-ahead assist, Thomas led the Tigers with 18 points.