Sophomore Claire Baguley’s heroic effort led the Rangers past a tough opponent of FHN. She dropped 26 points in an amazing 56-55 win on a last second free throw from Claire.

The Rangers have had up and down success throughout the season and suffered a rough loss to FHN earlier this season 45-26. Friday night, the Rangers looked for an offensive spark. Claire Baguley was just what they needed.

Claire had a huge night all over the floor. In the first quarter alone, she scored 9 of the Rangers first 15 points. She was clutch from the line all night, and knocked down a couple from beyond the arc. Maddy Smith also jumped in on the action with an early three.

Head coach Kristina Prins harped on the success of the young starter tonight.

“When Claire is on, we’re all on,” Prins said. “She’s a huge scorer for us, and she was confident tonight. We had seven or eight girls all playing phenomenal defense.”

The Ranger defense was tenacious in the first quarter, only allowing the Huskie offense to 7 points through the first 8 minutes.

Things began to get shaken up in the second quarter, however, as it took just over six minutes for the Rangers to get a basket to fall. Madi Winter broke the streak with a left-handed lay in.

After a strong third quarter, the Rangers set themselves up for a battle late in the fourth. Only up by three, the game became back and forth with the Rangers keeping the slight edge.

Claire continued to be clutch throughout the half, hitting layups from both sides of the net. She also knocked down what seemed like every free throw opportunity she received.

After the Rangers lead was shrunk to just one, they maintained possession with just over a minute to go. As the possession resulted in a missed shot, the Huskies came down, and got sent to the line with a foul.

A seemingly perfect one point lead for the Rangers, quickly turned into an insurmountable deficit after both free throws went in. FHN had a one point lead.

FHC took a full timeout.

As the Rangers broke the huddle, they had to successfully throw the ball in, get it down the floor, and hit a shot to retake the lead and win the game.

After a shaky inbound pass, the Rangers threw the ball to the near sideline and almost out of bound with just 20 seconds on the clock. An outstanding play by junior Emma Yoder kept the ball alive. Junior Breanna Probst claimed the ball as time ticked off the clock.

As Bre drove to the basket, Northern defenders closed quickly. Bre threw up a heavily contested shot, but it did not fall. Luckily for the Rangers, Claire was waiting for the offensive rebound. Immediately she was fouled.

Claire went to the line and sunk them both, giving the girls varsity basketball team a huge walk-off win in absolutely incredible fashion. The reactions of awe and confidence were endless.

“When I was shooting, I did not want the game to go to overtime. I wanted to win,” Claire said. “I was really nervous when I went to the line. After I hit the second, all I could think was ‘do not foul’.”

“The last few seconds of the game were really nerve racking,” Maddy said. “We came out of the timeout with a play, and it didn’t really work that great. As soon as Claire picked it up and got fouled, I knew we were going to win.”

“All I said in the last 20 seconds was, no. ‘No no, don’t throw the ball. Did Emma just save that? That was awesome.’ That’s honestly all I said,” Prins later said laughing. “They did what we told them to do. That’s a game changer. When we can say something on the bench and they go out and translate. What a game.”