Janelle Loney of Patch tries to shoot over the Ramstein defense as she falls Friday at Wiesbaden High School. Ramstein won the game, 56-51, and advanced to Saturday's finals. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Janelle Loney of Patch tries to shoot over the Ramstein defense as she falls Friday at Wiesbaden High School. Ramstein won the game, 56-51, and advanced to Saturday's finals. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Bamberg's Cristie Ibanez tries to get a shot off over Sigonella's Sabrina Sabel in a Division III semifinal. Bamberg won 28-18 and will face Rota in the finals. Sigonella will play Brussels for third place. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Bamberg's Natasha Godbee pulls down a rebound in front of Sigonella's Sydney Moore in a Division III semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball finals, Saturday. Bamberg won 28-18 to advance to Saturday's final against Rota. Godbee was leading scorer with 13 points. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Bamberg's Cristie Ibanez drives against Sigonella's Sabrina Sabel in a Division III semifinal. Bamberg won 28-18 and will face Rota in the finals. Sigonella will play Brussels for third place. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
SHAPE's Eugina Rhett gets past Ansbach's Jahkya Smith and Naomi Traylor to score in SHAPE's 41-31 win over the Lady Cougars in a Division II semifinal. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Ansbach's Jahkya Smith can only stop SHAPE's Paris Johnson with a foul in their Division II semifinal. SHAPE won 41-31 to advance to Saturday's final at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Ansbach's Alyssa Solis slips past SHAPE's Jamie Gamboa, left, and Liz Burden for a shot. Ansbach fell to SHAPE 41-31 in a Division III semifinal. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Heither SHAPE's Teresa Muldoon nor Ansbach's Katryna Galvez can come down with the rebound in a Division II semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. SHAPE won 41-31 to advance to Saturday's final. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Sigonella's Tenia Strobridge gets past the Bamberg defense for a shot in the Jaguars' 28-18 loss to Bamberg in a Division III semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Dominique Poitier of Brussels tries to find her way around Rota defender Jessie Panis Friday at Wiesbaden High School. Panis scored a game-winning three-pointer as the Rota Lady Admirals beat Brussels 22-19 to advance to Saturday's Division III final. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Str)
Ali DeFazio of Brussels attempts a desperation shot over Yesenia Solis of Rota in the final second of Rota's Division III semifinal win over the Lady Brigands 22-19 Friday at Wiesbaden High School. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Str)
Heidelberg's Emma Roberts scores over Kaiserslautern's Medina Gregory in a Division I semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. Heidelberg advanced to Saturday's final with a 36-28 win. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Heidelberg's Rebecca Luna cna't get past Kaiserslautern's Amber Perryman, but she and her fellow Lady Lions got past the Lady Raiders 36-28 to advance to Saturday's Division I title game at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Kaiserslautern's Breona Drew, left, and Heidelberg's Kylee Miller fight for a ball in a Division I semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. Heidelberg advanced to Saturday's final with a 36-28 win. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Kaiserslautern's Medina Gregory shoots over Heidelberg's Emma Roberts in a Division I semifinal at the DODDS-Europe basketball championships. Heidelberg advanced to Saturday's final with a 36-28 win. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
WIESBADEN, Germany - The matchups are set for the girls finals on Saturday at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield Fitness Center. And all the teams are familiar with each other, having played against each other at least once this season.
In Division I games that ended just before Stars and Stripes print deadilne, Heidelberg rode a 17 point fourth period to break open a tight game and go on to a 36-28 win against Kaiserslautern. The Lady Lions will meet Ramstein, a 56-51 victor over defending champion Patch in Saturday’s finals. The Royals beat the Lions both times they played this year.
In Friday’s D-II semifinal action, the top-seeded SHAPE Lady Spartans outlasted an aggressive Ansbach squad, 41-31 to earn a finals birth in a foul plagued game. The Lady Spartans will meet fellow Region I member AFNORTH in Saturday’s finals after the Lady Lions survived a 43-40 victory in overtime against Aviano. AFNORTH and SHAPE split a pair of games this season.
In D-III play, senior Jessie Panis’ second three-pointer of the game with just seconds on the clock broke a 19-19 tie and lifted the Rota Admirals past Brussels into Saturday’s finals. They’ll meet up with Bamberg after the Barons knocked off Sigonella, 28-18. Bamberg defeated Rota in a pool play game Thursday.
Heidelberg 36, Kaiserslautern 28: The Lady Lions from Heidelberg exploded in the final period for the victory.
Both offenses sputtered out of the gate, with the score 5-4 at the end of one. Heidelberg held an 11-9 lead at halftime.
Heidelberg, switching between a 2-1-2 defense and man-to-man, kept the Lady Raiders from establishing dominance inside or outside, as Kaiserslautern was forced into low-percentage shots. The Lady Lions offense relied on the inside presence of junior forward Emma Roberts and sharpshooting senior guard Rebecca Luna, who finished with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
With the score tied 19-19 going into the final period, the Lady Lions scored 11 unanswered points. Heidelberg spent a good portion of the final minutes on the free throw line.
Kaiserslautern freshman Amber Perryman led the Lady Raiders with 9. Junior Jada Perry finished with 7 and senior teammate Medina Gregory had 6.
Luna said they were able to execute their coach’s halftime plan and make adjustments.
“Just keep getting inside, making their post players work,” Luna said. “After that, it was pure heart.”
Ramstein 56, Patch 51: MacKenzie Crews scored 14 points for the Royals, who limited Janelle Loney to 14 points.
“We knew it was going to be a tough, tough game,” Ramstein coach Nathan Brewster said. “We came ready and we did it.”
Rebecca Hess scored seven points for Patch, which will play Kaiserslautern for third place.
SHAPE 41, Ansbach 31: The fourth seed Lady Cougars were able to use a stout defense to hold SHAPE to just five points in the first period. The problem for Ansbach was they were only able to put one point up on the board.
Despite going 8 of 22 from the charity stripe during the game, SHAPE rode the hot hand of sophomore guard Eugina Rhett, who scored 20 points.
Ansbach took advantage of some early foul trouble by SHAPE’s 5-foot-11-inch center, Teresa Muldoon, who picked up her fourth foul with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left in the half.
Without SHAPE’s big girl in the game, Ansbach was able to go on a 5-2 run before halftime, closing the gap to a 18-17 score at the break.
The Lady Spartans started the second half on a run, with a crucial series of plays where Rhett hit a bucket, made a steal and then drained her third three-pointer of the game.
“We’re throwing a lot of sloppy passes, we’ve got to make the passes better,” Ansbach coach Micheal Hunt barked at his squad from the sidelines.
Ansbach started to have some success feeding the ball inside to sophomore Alyssa Solis, the Lady Cougars top scorer with 7, but Muldoon, who finished the game with 8 points, came back into the game for SHAPE and shut down the lane.
“Us being a team is everything, we have stuck together,” said Rhett, who also had a three steals and a pair of assists in the game. “We’ll celebrate a little bit and then concentrate on the next team.”
AFNORTH 43, Aviano 40, OT: Jasmine Doll scored six of her team’s nine points in overtime as the Lady Lions topped the Saints.
Sara Sawyer led the way for AFNORTH during regulation with 16 points. Kyhera Smith and Katlyn Atchley each had 13 points to pace Aviano. Dani Lippert socred all five of Aviano’s points in overtime and finished with eight.
Rota 22, Brussels 19: Top-seeded Rota rebounded from a loss against Bamberg on Thursday thanks in part to Jessie Panis tie breaking shot.
“I knew we were in our last seconds - I just hoped to make it in because I was not making any of my shots this game,” said Panis, who topped Rota scorers with 10. Senior teammate Yesenia Solis added six.
The Lady Brigands were led by senior Sindi Shahu and freshman Anya Shelton, who each scored six.
Rota earned a rematch with the fourth-seeded Bamberg Lady Barons for the title, a team that beat the Lady Admirals on Thursday in pool play.
Bamberg 28, Sigonella 18: The Barons broke open a tightly contested first half, to outlast the second-seeded Sigonella.
Sigonella missed some early opportunities to dish the ball low, as Bamberg opened up a narrow lead.
“Look down low, stop shooting that ball,” Sigonella coach Tonya Strobridge screamed to her perimeter players from the sideline.
With 3:21 left in the third period, Bamberg rallied for seven unanswered points, opening its biggest lead of the game (five points), when sophomore Cristle Ibanez hit a three-pointer, followed by a basket by senior Natesha Godbee, Bamberg’s leading scorer on the day with 13.
Bamberg sophomore Tiana Bowen pitched in five for the Lady Barons. Sigonella sophomore Tenia Strobridge led her team with eight.
“Our defense is good, the only thing that can beat us is ourselves,” Godbee said. “Once we got our head back in the game, it was over.”
Semifinal girls’ action begins at noon at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield with the D-III championship game. The D-II finale is scheduled for a 3 p.m. tipoff, followed by a 6 p.m. start time for the big schools title. Third place matches are slated for 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. starts at Wiesbaden High School.
Stars and Stripes reporter Dan Blottenberger contributed to this report
