Medfield Falls Victim to Improbable OA Comeback in Title Game of Walpole Tourney

WALPOLE – The Medfield High School girls' basketball team found out the hard way Wednesday that no lead is safe until the final buzzer sounds.

Leading by five points (57-52) with 6.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's Walpole Tournament Championship game against Oliver Ames, the Warriors couldn't stop the Tigers from forcing overtime on Candace Steadman's buzzer-beating lay-up off an inbounds pass. In the extra session, OA outscored Medfield 11-5 to pull away with the 68-62 win to claim its fourth straight Walpole Tournament title.

"At the end of the game, we were in control," said Medfield head coach Mark Nickerson. "When you’re up five points with 6.9 seconds left, you’re starting to think, who’s going to be my MVP for the tournament? ... It’s hard to rebound from that. In our minds, I think we had won the game and in actuality that wasn’t true."

Here's what happened in those final 6.9 seconds.

OA point guard Asia Mitchell dribbled the ball down the floor and with Medfield playing tight defense, her only option was to shoot. Mitchell pulled up at the 3-point line and drained it, pulling OA within two with 1.4 seconds left on the clock.

Needing a steal, turnover, or quick foul, OA buckled down and took away every option for Medfield on the ensuing inbounds pass. The ball sailed out of bounds and back into the hands of the Tigers with no time lost.

Mitchell inbounded the ball under OA's own basket.

"Thankfully with 1.4 seconds left, there’s no time ticking until it touches someone’s hands," said OA head coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook. "What we were trying to do is we were trying to figure out what they were doing defensively. I had originally set up something else, but then when we saw them pick [man to man] we went to a different play."

The play was flawless.

Mitchell found Steadman wide open under the basket. The OA forward converted the lay-up  at the buzzer to tie the game, 57-57 at the end of regulation.

Mitchell scored six of OA's 11 points in overtime to give the Tigers the improbable win.

Mitchell, with 11 points on the night, was named to the All-Tournament team. Steadman and junior forward Caitlyn Abela were named co-MVPs. Steadman finished with 24 points on the night and Abela finished with 21.

"It was really difficult," Clement-Holbrook said. "How do you pick? In a comeback like that, I’ve done this tournament for 30-something years so I had no recollection of anything coming down to that and I just felt, how do you decide that? And, I think we did the right thing."

For Medfield, sophomore forward Kristen Fechtelkotter, who dominated the glass, earned a spot on the All-Tournament team. Sophomore guard Lauren Petit led the team in scoring with 18 points. Sophomore Kate Thomas finished with 16 and junior captain Jen Narlee finished with 10.

The Warriors led throughout most of the game and held an eight point lead heading into the fourth quarter, 42-34.

"It was a back and forth game for most of the game," Nickerson said. "I thought for a while there at the end of the third quarter we kind of took control of the game. They fought back at the beginning of the fourth quarter and then we fought back again."

It was a disappointing way to end a near-perfect regular season for Medfield (21-1), but Nickerson said he hopes it will serve as a valuable lesson for his team as the state tournament looms.

"We played two tough games," Nickerson said. "We played a tough game against Walpole [Tuesday] and we were fortunate to win that one. I thought we played well [Wednesday]. That’s a very good OA team. The girls know those are the types of teams we’re going to have to beat and these are the types of games we’re going to be involved in. It's good for us to compete with those teams at that level and get the close game experience. We haven’t had a whole lot of that this season."

OA finishes the regular season with an 18-2 record. Both losses came against Franklin in close contests.

"The two times we played Franklin and in tough scenarios we didn’t really rise to the occasion and I think tonight we certainly did," Clement-Holbrook said.

Both teams have qualified for the MIAA state tournament. Pairings are expected to be announced Friday.