Shifflett’s Free Throw Heroics Seal Victory

SIGOURNEY – A second half surge propelled the Sigourney Savages over the Melcher-Dallas Saints last Friday, Feb. 12.

The first quarter started slow for both teams as the scoreline read 6-3 in favor of the Saints at the 4:00 (halfway) mark of the first quarter.

Sigourney finished the quarter on a 10-8 run, putting them down one after the quarter, 14-13.

The second quarter saw Melcher-Dallas senior Ryan Krpan score the first basket of the quarter for the Saints. Not only did this basket tie the game at 16 at 7:11, the basket put Krpan over a thousand career points.

It’s unclear whether this milestone gave the Saints momentum for the rest of the quarter, but an argument could certainly be made for that as they went into half up 30-21.

“We definitely got out hustled in the first half,” Coach Eslick said.

Sigourney saw the deficit as no problem as they slowly clawed their way back into the game.

“We played a little harder in the second half, we dug a hole, but the kids pulled out of it and made some important plays,” Eslick said. 

Down 34-28 with 5:13 left in the third quarter, down 34-30 with 4:45 left, down 38-35 with 3:00 left and with 2:40 left in the third, Levi Crawford hit a 3-point basket to tie the game at 38.

Despite all this, the Saints would lead the game going into the final eight minute period of play, 42-41.

Brock Halleran would put Sigourney up 43-42 with 7:13 remaining in regulation.

The lead would continue to yo-yo between the two teams until the 1:04 mark when Ethan Shifflett made the first pair of his four straight free throws go in.

Melcher-Dallas leading scorer Lane VanderLinden (19 points) had a look with four seconds left, but his shot missed and Sigourney won 59-55.

“Ethan made four really big free throws at the end to basically win the game for us. We basically got enough stops and rebounds to pull it off, it was a good win for us,” Eslick said about the final sequences of the game.

The Savages took on the Lynnville-Sully Hawks in Class 1A Substate 6 First Round action Monday night, falling 72-44 and ending their season at 9-13.