Niles' Maureen Craig scored 15 points in the Vikings' 60-57 overtime loss to South Bend St. Joseph Tuesday night. (Daily Star Photo/AMELIO RODRIGUEZ)

By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ

Niles Daily Star

The Niles Vikings girls’ varsity basketball team played host to the South Bend St. Joseph Indians on Tuesday night, in a game that came right down to the wire… twice.

The second time, proved to be heartbreaking for Niles, which lost to visiting St. Joseph 60-57 in overtime.

The Vikings trailed the Indians by as many as 14 points late in the third period, but were able to cut that lead to just eight entering the fourth quarter.

Down 42-34 entering the final eight minutes of play, Niles found a way to slowly cut the lead down to just two at 44-42 with just over three minutes left to play.

That’s when Maureen Craig, arguably the smallest girl on the court, came up with the biggest shot of the night, at least to that point.

Craig buried a 3-pointer from deep in the corner with 2:51 remaining to give the Lady Vikings a 45-44 advantage.

The score remained that way until Niles’ Nicole Sly grabbed an offensive rebound, after a missed free throw with 1:15 left on the clock and put it in for the three point lead.

With both teams in the bonus, a Niles foul sent St. Joseph senior, Amanda Chamblee to the free throw line where she calmly knocked down both attempts with 9.9 seconds remaining to cut the Niles lead down to 47-46.

On the inbounds pass, St. Joe fouled Craig with 8.2 seconds remaining, sending her to the free throw line where she sank both free throws and gave the host team a 49-46 advantage.

After an Indians timeout, everyone knew the play drawn up by St. Joseph coach Adam Kroemer was designed to get the ball to sophomore Alex Kubsch, who led all scorers with 24 points.

Niles doubled up on Kubsch forcing the Indians to look elsewhere for the overtime forcing shot.

That elsewhere happened to be fellow sophomore Darby Mountford, who drained a 3-pointer from the right wing as the horn sounded, sending the game into overtime.

The Indians scored the first four points of overtime and never looked back.

A 3-point basket by Kubsch would build their lead to as many as seven 58-51, but Craig wasn’t finished, as she knocked down another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 58-54.

A turnover by the Indians gave Niles another chance. Two free throws by Jenna Grannell cut the lead to two 58-56 with 16.8 seconds remaining.

The Indians sent Sarah Hall deep on the inbounds play and she was left wide open for an easy layup. Niles would sink one more free throw, but it wasn’t enough as the Indians of St. Joseph pulled off the victory.

As exciting of a finish as the game had, it wasn’t always that way.

Both teams combined for more than 50 turnovers and more than 35 fouls. Niles shot only 2-of-8 from the charity stripe in the fourth period and only 12-of-22 for the game.

St. Joseph shot 12-of-16 from the stripe.

Grannell led the Vikings with 18 points, while Craig finished with 15 points, Sly 14 points and Alex McIntee 14 points.

Sarah Hall chipped in with 14 points for the Indians, who also got 12 points from Amanda Chamblee.

With the loss, Niles falls to 9-4 on the season, while the Indians improve to 7-9.

ST. JOSEPH 60

Alex Kubsch 9 2-2 24, Amanda Chamblee 3 5-6 12, Sarah Hall 6 2-4 14, Taylor Kurzhal 1 0-0 2, Darby Mountford 2 1-2 7, Ashley Plenzler 0 1-2 1. TOTALS:

NILES 57

Savannah Wolnik 1 1-2 3, Alex McIntee 2 0-1 4, Maureen Craig 4 3-4 15, Nichole Sly 5 3-5 14, Jenna Grannell 7 4-5 18, Gabrielle Ezell 1 1-5 3

St. Joe 9 26 42 49 60

Niles 9 22 34 49 57

3-Pointers: Niles 5 (Sly 1, Craig 4) St. Joseph 7 (Kubsch 4, Mountford 2, Chamblee 1)