HOPE — Hauser trailed for most of the first 30 minutes of Monday night’s girls basketball game, and when the Jets got the lead, they couldn’t hold it.
The Jets battled back from a 10-point third-quarter deficit to take a three-point lead with just under a minute left in regulation. But Milan rallied to tie the game, then outscored Hauser 4-0 in overtime to claim a 46-42 victory.
“I thought it was great the kids battled back,” Hauser coach Brad Hamilton said. “They made the effort. They work their tails off.”
The Jets (2-9) were down 36-26 late in the third quarter and trailed 36-28 going into the fourth. A 3-pointer by Jada Asher cut the lead to 36-31, and after an Indians basket, Hauser scored seven in a row, with a Taylor Henderson basket giving the Jets a 39-38 lead with 2:14 remaining.
Hauser took a three-point lead on a pair of free throws from Sarah Tedder with 59 seconds left. But then the Jets missed two more free throws that could have made it a two-possession game and went 1 of 4 from the line in the final 50 seconds, while Milan (4-7) went 4 of 4 at the line.
“We had the momentum, and we had the lead, and I needed to attack, and I didn’t,” Hamilton said. “But we had free throws to go up five a couple of times, and didn’t get them. You get up five or seven, and it’s a different ballgame.”
The Indians scored all four of their points in the overtime from the free-throw line. The Jets went 0 of 7 from the field and did not shoot a free throw in the extra session.
Tedder finished with 11 points and eight rebounds to lead Hauser. Henderson added nine points.
The Jets finished 10 of 22 from the line for the game. Milan was 17 of 26.
“That’s the ballgame,” Hamilton said. “We can shoot them better than that. I just think we’re worn out.”
Hauser starter Tessa Sims, who was injured in last week’s loss at Edinburgh, was able to play only a couple of minutes at a time. Mykenzie Ault, who started in her place Monday, took a hard fall when she was fouled going up to intercept a long inbounds pass in the third quarter.
