The 2009 WIAA Division 3 State Champion Amherst High School girls basketball team, front row, from left: Taylor Strand, Ali Stratton, Lindsey Makuski, Marissa Trzebiatowski, Ashley Holden and Maren Mott. Second row: Manager Jaimee Pitt, Jenna Pitt, Ellen Maves, Kelsey Blackford and Melzy Peterson. Back row: Team scorer Jess Torrey, manager Lexi Haferbecker, assistant coach Lorraine Torrey, statistician and manager Emily Peterson, assistant coach Jay Pitt, Kate Glodowski, Shelby Serafin, Claire Glodowski, head coach Shelli Haferbecker, athletic trainer Jodi Waltenberg and assistant trainer Alicia Felker. (John Kemmeter photo)

Portage County Gazette

This story is a reprint from the March 20, 2009, edition of The Portage County Gazette.

By John Kemmeter

With a State Championship and an undefeated season on the line, Jenna Pitt knocked down the biggest shot of her life.

With the score tied 37-37 in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, the Amherst junior guard hit a pull-up jumper from the left baseline with 4.2 seconds left to help lift the Falcons to a State Title.

With Amherst (27-0) up 39-37, top-ranked Cuba City (26-1) had one more chance to tie the game at the free throw line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one and Pitt pulled down the rebound and sank a pair of free throws, as Amherst won 41-37 in the WIAA Division 3 State Championship Game at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison on Saturday, March 14.

“We were so excited and happy,” said senior guard/forward Kate Glodowski. “To go out as a senior on a win is amazing.”

“We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had to do it,” said junior guard Ali Stratton. “So we all stepped up and did what we had to get it done.”

“You get down to the State Tournament, and that’s incredible,” said Amherst girls basketball head coach Shelli Haferbecker. “But to actually take it and be No. 1 in the state, it means so much. It’s something that these girls are going to remember for the rest of their lives and treasure. I’m glad that they were able to achieve it.

“The community’s been such a big backer of us, and that makes it even extra special,” she said.

The game was a showdown between the two top-ranked teams in Division 3, who both entered unbeaten with 26-0 records.

Cuba City had won a Wisconsin-record eight State Championships and had never lost in a State Title Game, while it also beat Amherst 65-43 in the 2006 State Semifinal and 70-28 in the 2007 State Championship Game.

Meanwhile, second-ranked Amherst returned a veteran team, whose seniors were making their fourth consecutive appearance at state and were freshmen and sophomores in the previous losses to Cuba City.

Amherst got off to a fast start in the first quarter, as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but Cuba City battled back and led 11-10 after the first quarter.

The game remained tight throughout the second quarter and the score was tied 18-18 at halftime.

In the second half, Amherst established control late in the third quarter thanks to a 10-2 run that put the team up 33-25, before Cuba City hit a shot with one second left to make it 33-27.

The Falcons increased their lead to 35-27 on a jump shot by senior forward Ellen Maves 24 seconds into the fourth quarter, but they were held scoreless for over the next six minutes, which allowed Cuba City to pull to within 35-34 with under a minute to play and the ball in its hands.

However, Kate Glodowski came up with a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to increase the Falcons’ lead to 37-34 with 49 seconds remaining, but Cuba City answered with a three-pointer by Megan Moor from the top of the key that tied the game at 37-37 with 30.3 seconds left.

After the Falcons called a timeout, they passed the ball around until there was just under 10 seconds left, as Pitt, who was only 2-of-14 from the field in the game up to that point, made her move toward the basket.

She beat her defender off the dribble and drove down the left baseline, where she released the eventual-game winner.

“In the timeout before, they told me that it was going to be a screen play, so either I was shooting it or Kate,” said Pitt. “I didn’t really think about how big it was, but they gave me that one step and I knocked it down.”

“She’s an incredible shooter,” said Haferbecker. “It was a little bit of an off-night for her, but to step up and hit that shot with confidence there, that just shows a lot of character and it shows what type of basketball player she is.”

Cuba City called a timeout with 4.2 seconds left and they got the ball underneath the Amherst basket and had to travel the length of the court to try and tie or win the game.

However, a foul was called on Claire Glodowski 50 feet away from the ball at midcourt, which allowed Cuba City’s Moor, a 74-percent free-throw shooter, to shoot one-and-one free throws with an opportunity to tie the game.

“I felt very bad for Claire, because there was nothing that she could do on that,” said Haferbecker. “The girl just hit the ground and ‘boom,’ the ref just made a call.”

“My first feeling was, ‘I lost the game for us,’” said Claire Glodowski. “But once she missed the free throw, I was pretty much OK.”

Moor missed the first free throw and Pitt grabbed the rebounded and was fouled with 1.2 seconds left.

As she was walking to the free throw line to seal the victory and a State Championship for Amherst, Pitt, a 40-percent free throw shooter on the season, looked over to her dad, Amherst assistant coach Jay Pitt.

“Earlier that day my dad was talking to me, and he goes ‘you’re going to have to shoot free throws for a State Championship,’” said Pitt. “I was like, ‘nah, don’t worry about it.’ Right before I was walking up there, he looks over at me, he goes, ‘I told you. I told you.’ And I just kind of laughed.

“It kind of broke the ice a little bit, so I was just confident,” she said.

Pitt knocked down both free throws to make it 41-37, and as Cuba City’s final desperation heave fell well short, the Amherst players stormed the court and the celebration was on.

“I jumped sky-high in high heels, just along with the rest of the girls,” said Haferbecker. “Emotion just uplifts you, you can’t even explain what the feeling is. Proud, emotional, tears in the eyes.

“It was just a great feeling to know that, ‘hey, we’re No. 1 in the state,’” she said. “And to know that they’ve worked so hard all season and to accomplish that, it was great, and especially for the seniors going out.”

“I ran and tackled Kate (Glodowski) right away,” said Pitt. “For their last game, we wanted to do it for those guys too, and of course Mike Holden, the dad of one of our teammates.”

In the Championship Game, Kate Glodowski led the team with 12 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and three blocks, Pitt added eight points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and Claire Glodowski had seven points and nine rebounds. Kate Glodowski and Pitt were both named to the All-Tournament Team.

Haferbecker also credited the play of her bench, including junior forward Marissa Trzebiatowski, sophomore forward Ashley Holden and 6’2 sophomore center Shelby Serafin, who played 11 minutes in the second half and pulled down three rebounds and came up with a block and a steal during crunch time.

This was the first unbeaten season in school history for Amherst (27-0), which also won a State Title in 1999 in Haferbecker’s first season as the team’s head coach.

It put the finishing touches on a four-year run for the Amherst senior class, which included Kate Glodowski, Claire Glodowski, Maves and the injured Taylor Strand and Maren Mott, that helped compile a 97-7 record over the last four years.

“Being a senior and going down there four years and then finally being able to take home a gold was just amazing,” said Kate Glodowski. “With the support of the community and everyone behind us, it was just so awesome.”

“Playing with Kate and Ellen and Taylor since the fifth grade, we were always talking about going to state,” said Claire Glodowski. “To end our last year playing together, winning a gold ball, is just a major, major accomplishment.”

“It was great,” said Maves. “It was the perfect way to end a season, the perfect way to end a high-school career.”