Emilee Osagiede said she couldn’t have done it without the support of her teammates. But when it came down to it, she was all alone at the free-throw line in a tie game with 2.5 seconds left, trying to stay calm in the eye of a storm.
Osagiede put the first shot up softly, but it hit the rim and fell off.
If she missed the second, the game would likely go to overtime, but she wasn’t going to let that happen. She calmed her breathing and sharpened her focus, then made the second shot to cap a remarkable comeback as Palo Alto defeated Wilcox 47-46 in a key SCVAL De Anza Division girls basketball game.
“I called my best friend Lindsay (Black) over and asked her to help me pray and stay calm,” Osagiede said.
Osagiede scored the final seven points as Palo Alto, which trailed 45-29 earlier in the fourth quarter, finished the game on an 18-1 run. Osagiede accounted for 14 of those points.
“I couldn’t have done without my teammates,” she said. “What mattered was my belief in our team and belief in myself.”
The win throws the De Anza Division race into a virtual three-way dead heat. Palo Alto, Wilcox and Gunn all have two losses with two weeks left in the season. There are no league playoffs in the SCVAL, but those three teams will all be in Division I in the Central Coast Section playoffs and figure to be among the top seeds.
Wilcox started the season 16-0 before losing to Gunn 43-37 on Jan. 27. The Chargers looked as if they were going to take out the frustration from that loss on Palo Alto, making 17 of 36 field-goal attempts through the first three quarters while holding Palo Alto to 10 of 32.
“Wilcox’s defense is hard to figure out,” Palo Alto coach Scott Peters said. “They play a sagging man-to-man and switch into a zone. Our girls had a hard time figuring it out.”
But in the fourth quarter, Wilcox turned it over nine times and did not make a field goal.
“The Wilcox guards are pretty quick, and I didn’t think we could press them the whole game,” Peters said. “So we kind of kept the press in our back pocket until the fourth quarter.”
An 11-0 run cut the 45-29 deficit to 45-40 with 1:32 left. After a free throw by Amanda Joo made it 46-40, Osagiede scored twice off penetration moves to bring Palo Alto within 46-44 with 26 seconds left. Two free throws by Osagiede tied it with 18 seconds left. Then Osagiede, the De Anza Division MVP as a junior, came up with a steal while fronting Wilcox center Joeseta Fatuesi and drew the fifth foul on Fatuesi, setting up the winning foul shot.
“Emilee is clutch,” Peters said. “She’s our best free-throw shooter in games. Not in practice, but in games.”
Osagiede scored 14 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter. Stephanie Allen also scored 16 for Palo Alto (14-4, 7-2). Fatuesi had 15 points and 11 rebounds for Wilcox (16-2, 6-2).
