The Bemidji girls basketball team saved the best for last Saturday, outscoring Apollo 21-8 in overtime to record an 84-72 victory on the Eagles court.
The four point section contest lifted Bemidji past Apollo into seventh place with a chance of advancing into sixth should Buffalo lose its Tuesday night game with SMA.
The final swing was totally unexpected after the Eagles overcame a five point deficit in the final 30 seconds to knot the score.
It was a day for big scorers. Brianna Pfremmer hit 24 to pace the visitors with Megan Larson adding 19 and Ashley Erickson 15.
But six other players scored before the game ended.
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Apollo had four double figure scorers led by Andrea Hagberg with 18, Brooke Dunsmoor 15, Amanda Welle 14 and Alison Gray 17.
It was Welle's trey with six seconds left that knotted the score and brought on the overtime. That was the seventh bomb by the Eagles on the day. They added two more in the extra session for a game total of nine.
Bemidji had only three, all in the first half. But it was able to work the ball inside to Pfremmer who hit repeatedly.
The extra session was almost unbelievable.
For Bemidji scored the first 16 points to take an 80-64 lead before Welle hit another trey to halt the surge. Gray added another before the game ended.
Bemidji went to the line 18 times as Apollo had to foul to gain possession. It hit 15 of the 18 to keep Apollo under control.
The win lifted Bemidji to 8-15 and dropped Apollo to 7-17.
Neither team was ever able to take command.
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Treys by Gray and Hagberg opened a 10-4 Apollo lead at the start.
The Eagles held that lead until Ashley Hirt's rebound basket send Bemidji in front 20-19. After losing it twice, Bemidji came back on a 10-2 run to move to a 31-26 late in the stanza.
But treys by Gray and Welle brought Apollo back to a 34-33 lead at the break.
Bemidji grabbed the lead back three times early in the second half before a six points run staked the Eagles to a 46-45 edge.
But a later seven point Bemidji rush sent the visitors to a 54-49 advantage with less than eight minutes to go.
But it was unable to expand that margin and allowed the Eagles to stay within sight.
But Bemidji led by at least four until the final minute. Gray's trey left the Eagles down 60-59.
Erickson followed with a layup and Bemidji went to the line twice, Liz Judkins making two but Meg Claypool missing the front end of a bonus after Dunsmoor's layup left Apollo down by three.
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Welle made them pay with her final shot.
But all that faded away when the overtime started as Pfremmer and Judkins opened with lay-ups before Bemidji started its trek to the foul line.
Pfremmer hit, two, Claypool drained one and after a Pfremmer layup Larson made four more, Pfremmer one and Larson another pair for the 80-64 lead.
That was all she wrote.
Things get no easier this week as the team ends its regular season at Detroit Lakes Tuesday and Grand Rapids Thursday.
DL won the first meeting here 74-46 while Bemidji shaded the Rapids 55-54 in December
Bemidji will be without Ashley Hirt who went down with a leg injury in the second half and did not return. She will undergo an examination tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury.
The B Team won a low scoring contest 32-28, taking a 15-12 first half lead and adding one more point to the total down the stretch.
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It lifted Bemidji to 11-12.
Kylie Detschman led the Bemidji attack with 10. Hirt had seven.
No Eagle had more than five.
BEMIDJI 85) Judkins 3 2-2 1 9; Erickson 4 5-6 2 15; Pfremmer 10 4-8 4 24, Gauwitz 4 0-0 5 8; Larson 4 11-15 0 19; Claypool 0 1-3 0 1; Nelson 0 2-2 2 2; Hirt 3 0-0 3 6; J. Christensen 0 1-2 0 1; Totals: 28 26-37 17 85
APOLLO (72) Hagberg 6 5-6 4 18; Gray 6 0-0 0 17; Lynch 1 3-7 3 6; Welle 4 4-4 4 14; Dunsmoor 5 5-7 5 15; Orienzi 1 0-2 4 2; Jacobson 0 0-0 1 0; Stock 0 0-0 2 0;Totals:23 17-26 23 72
Halftime score: Apollo 34, Bemidji 33
Regulation 64-64
Three point field goals; Bemidji 3 (Erickson 2, Judkins) Apollo 9 (Gray 5, Welle 2, Hagberg, Lynch)
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B Team Game
BEMIDJI (32) Detschman 10, Hirt 7, Christensen 6, McDonald 5, Molnar 2, Hougen 2, Treat, Christiansen, Chmielewski 0
APOLLO (28) Dukowitz 5, Parsons 5, Gerard 4, Haarstad 4, Stock 2, Walz 2, Novacinski 2, Holub 2, Faber 2
