It looked mighty bleak for the Tiffin University women's basketball team on Saturday afternoon, trailing 52-51 with just 2.1 seconds remaining. Tiffin was rescued by the left handed layup of Aida Santana Martin as time expired, defeating the Lake Superior State Lakers 53-52.
Tiffin opened the 1st quarter with five straight points to lead 5-0. The Lakers quickly caught up, pulling to within a bucket at 10-8 with 03:01 remaining in the quarter. Jensen Hiegel's layup was the last bucket of the quarter, going home with 35 seconds left on the clock to give Tiffin a 14-11 lead after a quarter of play.
The Dragons extended their lead in the 2nd quarter, but it wasn't in the way you would expect. Tiffin only attempted six shots from the field, hitting half. The free throw line carried the Dragons to the halftime locker room as Tiffin connected on 9 of 12 attempts. Tiffin's defense held the Lakers to 4 of 13 shooting from the field in the quarter, and allowed only one free throw attempt. Tiffin took a 30-21 lead to the break, leaning on the play of Kiley May.
May scored 11 points in the 1st half, doing so on 5 of 6 shooting from the charity stripe. Tiffin hit only 39.4% of their field goal attempts, but their 10 of 14 performance from the free throw line proved to be the difference.
Tiffin played their worst quarter of the game in the 3rd, netting only 10 points while surrendering 17 to the Lakers. Lake Superior State connected on 8 of 19 field goal attempts, and held the Dragons to 21.4% shooting from the field. The two teams headed to the final quarter with Tiffin clinging to a 40-38 lead.
The final quarter saw two ties and six lead changes as neither side could gain control. Tiffin used a Kiley May triple to hold a 43-38 lead, but the Lakers rattled off seven straight points to lead 45-43. The two teams continued to trade the lead, and it simply came down to who had the ball last. The Lakers had their chance and they connected, hitting a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining to lead 52-51. After a timeout by Tiffin that advanced the ball beyond half court, Tiffin rolled the dice and hit a 10 in the form of Aida Santana Martin. Catching the ball at the free throw line, Martin drove to her left, used one dribble and lobbed the ball off the glass as the clock expired to give Tiffin a 53-52 win.
Kiley May finished with a career high 22 points on 5 of 6 shooting from three and 7 of 10 shooting from the free throw line. Martin was the next closest to May, netting nine points on 50% shooting. Madison Jackson had a great game for Tiffin in the post, grabbing a game high 10 boards.
The win moves the Dragons to 8-16 overall and 4-12 in the GLIAC.