Glendale reaches title game

Amy Durham’s half-court shot at the buzzer pinballed out, handing the Marshall girls basketball team a heartbreaking loss.

Glendale beat the Owls 48-47 on Friday in the semifinals of the Smith-Cotton/McDonald’s Lady Tiger Classic.

With the game tied at 47, Glendale’s Rachel Duckworth drew a foul with 3.1 seconds left.

“Very confident,” Glendale coach Renee Temple said of having Duckworth on the line in that situation. “She’s one of the people that has spent a lot of time in the last few months really working on her shot, and we were very confident to have her to the line.”

Duckworth missed the first free throw, but sank the second after a timeout to give the Lady Falcons the lead.

Marshall inbounded to Durham, who dribbled to midcourt and got the shot off just before the buzzer. It hit the backboard and then pinballed out to send the Owls to the third-place game of the tournament.

“It didn’t go our way,” said Marshall assistant coach Joey Rainey, who said she was filling in for coach Tom Hayob while he recovers from a mild heart attack. “My kids played a heck of a game tonight. That’s the hardest we’ve played; that’s our best game probably of the season.”

The finish was fitting for a game in which neither team led by more than four points and that featured 14 lead changes and 11 ties.

Marshall took a 39-36 lead with 5:18 left on Jessica Harriman’s jumper in the paint, but Glendale (7-8) sank consecutive 3-pointers to take its own lead.

Paige Fifer hit a jumper for the Owls with 2:20 left for a 43-42 advantage, but Duckworth made a pair of free throws to give Glendale the lead again.

Emily Cline made her fifth 3-pointer of the night to give the Lady Falcons a 47-45 lead with 1:11 left, but Durham hit two free throws with 52 seconds left to tie it again and set the stage for the thrilling finish.

Harriman led Marshall with 14 points while Courtney Henley added 11 and Durham had 10.

Cline scored 15 points for Glendale to lead all scorers.