Douglas High Lady Tigers fall just short against Manogue

With home court advantage in the playoffs on the line, it was a given that the Douglas-Manogue girls' basketball game would be a close one.

This, though, was something else.

In a game that saw the lead change hands four times in the final two minutes, not to mention four potential game-winning shots in the last 20 seconds, it was Manogue who escaped with a 59-58 win over Douglas in Reno Friday.

Manogue took a 56-51 lead in the game with 40 seconds remaining but Douglas' Ne'Jae Jackson scored on a lay-up while also drawing a foul to cut the gap to 56-53.

Her free throw missed, but senior center Jessica Waggoner grabbed the rebound and put it back for a quick basket with 23 seconds left to cut the gap to 56-55.

Manogue's Talia Jim converted a pair of free throws at the other end with 19.5 seconds remaining but Douglas pushed the ball down the floor toward a wide-open Maci Pfaffenberger outside the 3-point line just left of the key.

Pfaffenberger nailed the shot tie the game at 58 but a Douglas foul at the other end put Ashley Armstrong at the line with 6.9 seconds left.

Armstrong missed the front end, but made the second, giving the Miners the 59-58 lead.

Douglas had one final shot to win it, which came from the exact same spot the previous 3-pointer had been made, but the ball bounced out and Armstrong hauled in the rebound for the win.

"Right down to the end, I thought the shot looked good, her feet were set and the follow through was there, it just didn't go down for us," Christen said. "It was a good high school basketball game. It was back and forth all game and we got good shots at the end, did everything we needed to, but it just didn't work out for us tonight."

There was a point early on when it appeared as though Douglas might repeat its blowout performance over the Miners from earlier in the season.

Trailing 8-7 in the first quarter, Douglas forced Manogue turnovers on seven consecutive possessions while putting together a 12-0 run to take a 17-8 lead.

Manogue stayed in the game with some sharp outside shooting, though, and managed to get out of the quarter trailing 19-13.

"We told the girls all week that it would be a game of runs," Christen said. "They are really good at home. We had a nice run, then they had a couple little runs and from there on it went back and forth."

It was a pair of 3-pointers from Armstrong and Alex Luckadoo that brough Manogue within one at 24-23. From there, neither team led by more than five for the remainder of the game.

Douglas' effort in the game was made all the more impressive by the fact that the Tigers were without Dany Heidt, who missed the game with the flu.

"We got hit hard this week," Christen said. "There was one night of practice where we just had eight kids. The girls fought through it, though, and really played hard tonight."

Waggoner led the team with 24 points while sophomore Jackie Harper had a breakout game with 12. Jackson added nine, Ally Freitas had eight, Pfaffenberger had three and Bri Burnside had two.

Douglas will travel to South Tahoe Tuesday night and host Carson in the regular season finale Friday.