Feb 20, 2003 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

HARRISON CITY – As a heavy underdog, Mt. Lebanon didn’t make many mental mistakes in pushing Albert Gallatin to the brink of elimination Tuesday night. But a critical mistake in the final seconds put AG star Loui Hall on the line and she made Mt. Lebanon pay. Hall’s two free throws with two seconds remaining gave AG a 40-39 win in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAAA girls basketball playoffs at Penn-Trafford.

“Hitting free throws at a time like that is what great players do,” said AG coach Shea Fleenor. “I was confident she’d at least put us into overtime. She’s an 80 percent free-throw shooter who thrives in those situations.”

AG held a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter but Mt. Lebanon, playing without its best player, scratched back to take a one-point lead with 3:02 remaining.

The teams traded baskets into the final minute, when an offensive rebound was put back through the net by Felicia Johnson to give Mt. Lebanon a one-point lead with seven seconds remaining.

AG, playing without its point guard, inbounded the ball to Hall, who was immediately fouled. It was Mt. Lebanon’s sixth team foul, so AG inbounded again, this time with four seconds left.

Hall again took the pass and this time was fouled unintentionally. A slight bump by Gerri Ruef at midcourt forced Hall out of bounds and forced the officials to make the call.

“We were fortunate it didn’t happen in the middle of the court,” Fleenor said. “But since Loui went out of bounds they had to call it.”

Hall went to the line with two seconds left and calmly sank both ends of the one-and-one. Mt. Lebanon turned the ball over on an out-of-bounds violation and AG inbounded to Hall, who counted two Mississippis before celebrating a win that moved AG into the WPIAL quarterfinals as well as the PIAA Tournament.

For AG, the win brought more relief than joy. The 21-4 Colonials are the tournament’s fourth seed and were expected to beat the 13-12 Blue Devils.

“Well, that’s easy to say but I knew not having Rachel Karpency would make it difficult for us,” Fleenor said of the team’s four-year starting point guard. She had sprained an ankle at the previous day’s practice and was on crutches Tuesday.

“I’ve been telling people all year that she’s jus as big a part of the team as Loui Hall,” Fleenor said. “We obviously don’t handle the ball as well when she’s not in the game.”

Fleenor doesn’t know when Karpency will return to action. “But we had some sophomores who had to grow up real quick, so hopefully it will help us in the long run,” he said.

Without Karpency, Hall handled the ball more frequently, and the 6-1 senior scored her team’s first 13 points on her way to a game-high 23 against Mt. Lebanon’s box-and-one defense.

Helping AG’s cause was an ankle injury suffered by Mt. Lebanon guard Katie Kestler with 5:20 left in the first quarter. But without its leading scorer, Mt. Lebanon still managed to take a 13-7 lead before AG bounced back to lead by 19-15 at halftime.

AG scored the first six points of the second half to push its lead to 10, but Mt. Lebanon’s full-court pressure resulted in a tie score with 7:47 remaining.

With a one-point lead, Mt. Lebanon forced a turnover at the 3:02 mark and ran 1:40 off the clock before AG was forced to foul with 1:22 remaining. Joanie Plake put Mt. Lebanon ahead by two by making one shot, and Mt. Lebanon failed to put the game away 20 seconds later when it missed the front end of another one-and-one.

AG center Ashley Davis grabbed the rebound of the missed free throw and ran to the other end of the court to take a pass inside the lane from Hall. Davis made the short jumper and was fouled. The 3-point play with 51 seconds remaining was the biggest play of the game for AG until Hall’s late free throws took the prize.

MT. LEBANON 39

Plake 4 3-4 12, Killeen 0 0-1 0, Kestler 0 0-0 0, Ruef 5 1-2 11, Johnson 5 0-0 11, Loughran 1 0-0 3, Brake 1 0-0 2; totals 16 7-14 39.

ALBERT GALLATIN 40

Davis 5 1-1 11, Hall 8 6-7 23, Kline 1 2-4 4, Guerierre 0 0-0 0, Adamovich 0 0-0 0, Patterson 0 1-2 1, Rivera 0 1-2 1; totals 14 11-16 40.

Score by quarters:

Mt. Lebanon 11-4-11-13-39

Albert Gallatin 7-12-9-12-40

Three-point goals: Mt. Lebanon 3 (Plake, Loughran, Johnson); Albert Gallatin 1 (Hall).

Officials: Ellis, Chambers, Christ.