Jonesville girls basketball loses to rival Homer on buzzer beater 3-pointer
HILLSDALE COUNTY — The battles waged between rivals can always result in close games despite any current conference standings or rankings.
When your rival comes to town, or you are tasked with going on the road to their place, wins and losses can be decided in fractions of a second.
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That pretty much sums up Thursday night for many area girls varsity basketball teams as they played at home against conference and divisional opponents. The closest game of the day went down at Jonesville High School in a battle between the Homer Trojans and the Comets.
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Homer drains a 3 at the buzzer to defeat Jonesville
The battles on the court of Jonesville and Homer High Schools has been a constant since both teams became members of the Big 8 conference several decades ago. The rivalry was bound to carry over as both teams became members of the Cascades conference this past offseason.
Despite the change in conference, it looked like history was to repeat itself on Thursday night as Jonesville girls basketball hosted Homer for their first showdown of the 2023-24 season. The rivalry has featured back and forth runs from both teams lately.
Going back to the 2021-22 season, Jonesville won by double-digits at home in the first matchup, and it was followed up by a 48-47 win at home for Homer. The following year, the Comets won both matchups in the regular season against the Trojans, only to lose to the Trojans in the district playoffs later in March.
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Fast forward to this year's matchup, the Trojans sunk a dagger 3-pointer at the buzzer to defeat the Comets 42-41 in a true rivalry classic.
Despite taking an early 13-10 lead after one quarter, the Trojans could not hold back the Comets from making runs to get back into the game. Down 20-14 in the middle of the second quarter, the Comets chipped away at the free throw line with points from Alexis Trine. Senior Comet Lyra Nichols would then bring the deficit to one with a layup. The Comets then took the lead 21-20 heading into halftime.
The Trojans would get out to a similar lead in the middle of the third quarter, but the Comets fought back with a 9-0 run to take the lead 32-27 heading into the fourth quarter. The Comets led by as much as 40-35 with little over a minute left in the game. A couple of costly turnovers, and smart foul play would give the Trojans the offensive plays they needed to come back to within one score of the Comet lead with under 10 seconds to play.
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With seven seconds left, down 41-39, the Trojans had one more play left to tie or win the game. Homer senior Emma Jones would get the ball just in time to sink the 3-point 40-footer buzzer beater.
Junior Comet Alexis Trine had 14 points and eight rebounds for Jonesville. Junior Haley Mach, junior Korra Estel and senior Gracen Hager all had seven points and at least three rebounds each. Mach dished out four assists. Senior Lyra Nichols had five points and 10 points. Freshman Kira Van Kampen had four points. Junior Natalynn Beach had two blocks.
For the Trojans, senior Paige Austin had 24 points, including three triples. Jones had 11 points, including three triples.
There's no doubt the Comets and coach Tom Dunn will look to get revenge on their rivals when they head to their place on Feb. 16. Until then, the Comets hold a 7-4 overall record and will head to Manchester next on Jan. 23.
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This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Jonesville girls basketball falls victim to Homer buzzer beater
