NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Up by four in overtime with one second on the clock, the five on the floor for the Redbank Valley girls basketball team peeled away and stood near their bench.
Brooklynn Taylor took in inbound pass for Karns City under the Gremlins’ own hoop and put up a 3-pointer that swished at the buzzer.
No matter. The Bulldogs escaped with a 48-47 win over the Gremlins on their home floor on Friday night.
(Pictured above, Mylee Harmon)
“I was like, ‘Guys, they can’t score four points. There’s only one second left,’” said Redbank Valley junior point guard Mylee Harmon. “So we just got back and she happened to make the 3-pointer, but we still won by one.”
The only disaster that could have befallen the Bulldogs was a foul on a made 3-pointer. That was taken out of the equation.
And Redbank Valley remained unbeaten, moving to 5-0 on the young season.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
Harmon was the key throughout, slashing to the hoop as is her signature and also getting steals for layups.
Harmon, who just surpassed 1,000 points in her career on Wednesday, finished with a game-high 26 against Karns City.
Turns out Redbank needed every one of those points.
“It never really matters to us who scores the points,” Harmon said. “It just happened to be me tonight. Everyone else played great. Kira (Bonanno) got a lot of rebounds.”
Redbank Valley clung to a 22-20 lead at the half before erupting in the third quarter to go up by nine at 37-28.
But Karns City didn’t fold and came all the way back with a 10-1 run to tie it at 38-38.
The teams finished regulation deadlocked at 44-44.
Bonanno hit two huge free throws and Harmon also drained a pair from the line to get the Bulldogs a hard-fought win.
“We lost our heads a couple of times, but Karns City is a really, really good team,” Harmon said. “They were very disciplined and we knew it was gonna be a tough game coming in, that it was gonna be a dogfight.
“We’re a pretty young team,” Harmon added. “We always have a freshman out there, no matter what, and I remember being a freshman in that situation out there and you’re gonna be nervous. We ended up keeping our heads and didn’t get too down.”
Chloe Fritch, who missed a few games at the start of the season, led Karns City with 13 points. Taylor added 11, Savanna Prescott nine and Naomi Venesky pitched in eight.
Bonanno scored eight for Redbank Valley with Addy Bond adding seven.
It was the second straight night that a Redbank Valley-Karns City basketball matchup ended in overtime.
On Thursday, the Bulldogs got a leaning, off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer from Kieran Fricko to edge the Gremlins in overtime, 67-66.
“That’s what I said in the locker room — it wasn’t a buzzer beater, but it was pretty close,” Harmon said. “It was overtime and we won by one. Crazy.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
