Blown call doesn’t faze Fairview
as Warriors get their revenge
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published Feb. 23, 2005

Every time you step in a gym, there is the possibility that you will see something that you have never seen before. Officials will make mistakes. They are human. But the start of the Bay-Fairview sectional championship was something else.

Teammates credited Rinnie Mayer for keeping them calmed and focused. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

The opening tip was forwarded to Fairview guard Stacie Dorian. As soon as she caught the ball, every player seemed to stop. No one guarded her. She just froze. Finally, a teammate called for the ball and she passed back over the half-court line in the opposite direction of her basket. Easy call, right, it was an over and back. The ball should be Bay's. But there was no whistle. Fairview attacked Bay's basket. They missed the shot but put in the rebound. The officials awarded two points to Bay and then allowed Bay to inbound the ball under their own basket. An easy pass to junior Paris Pugliese and it was 4-0 Bay just like that.

It would not be an understatement to say that the Fairview coaching staff exploded. However, the Fairview players remained calm. They quickly tied the game and showed Bay that they were to be taken seriously in this game. Fairview led by two after the first quarter, 16-14. Bay junior reserve Caitlin Gorie was huge off the bench for Rockets as she scored all seven of her points in a two-minute stretch at the end of the first and start of the second quarters. A three from senior Lisa Stokely gave the lady Rockets their biggest lead of the night at 22-17. Fairview rallied behind the spirited play of Marcia Borgman. The junior post seemed to get every big rebound and scored six points of Fairview's 8-0 run to end the half. The run gave the Warriors a 26-22 lead.

The key stretch of the game came with about three and half minutes to go in the third quarter. Bay junior Sarah Kazanas put in a missed free throw to tie the score at 35. On the next possession, Pugliese was whistled for her third foul. Borgman scored to put Fairview up by two with 2:50 left. Just eleven seconds later, Pugliese picked up her fourth foul.

Fairview took advantage and by the time Pugliese returned with 5:58 left in the fourth quarter, the lead was now 44-35. In fact, Bay was held scoreless for 7:40 overall before senior Kristen Morgan scored with 3:48 remaining to make it 44-37.

Fairview celebrates finally defeating Bay after close calls in soccer and basketball. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

Fairview silenced any threat of a comeback by running their offense beautifully and making big shots when the needed to. A perfect example was a possession where all five players touched the ball before Borgman drove the lane for a basket to make the score 51-42 with just 31 seconds left. Fittingly, it was Dorian who ended the scoring with two free throws with 1.8 seconds left for the 53-44 final.

Fairview coach Jessica Tafe was still bewildered by the opening segment at the end of the game.

"I went crazy," Tafe admitted. "It was absolutely the wrong call. I asked the table for a rulebook and they didn't have one. One official admitted later that they made a mistake. But the girls stayed calm. They did not reflect on my anger at all."

"We saw the coaches going nuts and they weren't going to change the call," junior Sana Eadeh said. "We couldn't stop for one call. We knew we had to keep playing."

Senior Christine Rehnert was on the bench next to the coaches at the start of the game. She said she knew her teammates would not let it affect their play.

"We have been in situations like this before where the coaches have freaked out and we just kept our heads together," Rehnert said. "Rinnie is a really good leader that way. She keeps us all calm."

Rinnie Meyer is always a cool customer on and off the court. While she only scored seven points, it was her temperament and ball control that set the tone for her teammates.

"That call just made us play four times as hard," Mayer said. "This was it. You might as well go down fighting. It was a game for everyone to step up. That is what a team is for to help out everyone else."

Fellow captain Erin Carroll said Mayer was the key.

"Rinnie had a great game controlling the tempo," Carroll said. "We knew what we had to do to beat this team and we did it."

Fairview had a game plan and stuck to it. The Warriors had five days of practice to prepare and some of the credit for the win has to go to the JV starters.

"You can't guard everyone the same," Tafe said. "All week we had the JV starters in practice and gave them all names. They hated it. Every day someone was Jessica Lauerhass and someone was Paris Pugliese. They had a job and they did what we simulated for them to do and we defensively guarded everyone a little differently. We learned a lot the first two times. We blew them out the first quarter and played like crap after that. If you watch the tape, everyone remembers us blowing them out but not how it happened. So as coaches we watched the tape a million and one times."

Pugliese had 19 points but Fairview did a better job of not letting her post up and then find other teammates.

"Most of the guards learned how to play like posts," junior Natalie Williams said.

"If Paris got the ball inside, everyone would come and help."

Mayer and Pugliese have both been starting point guards since there freshman year. This is the first time that Mayer's team has come out on top.

"Paris is a really good player," Mayer said. "She puts up a fight. To overcome that is a really good feeling."

Many members of the team were also starters on the soccer team. Bay ended their season in that sport. Then after the two losses in regular season, Fairview had revenge in mind.

"It was really important," Rehnert said. "They ended our soccer season, which was rough, so it was nice to pay them back and end their basketball season."

"It was Bay, so we showed up as a team," Borgman said. "I am so excited. I think we were planning on this game from the start of the season. It is hard to beat teams three times and they were not about to beat us."

Next up for Fairview is Buckeye. While the team was excited to finally knock off Bay, they know the job is not finished.

"I can't remember the last time we won one tournament game and now we won two," Dorian said. "I think this game will give us the confidence to go on to Buckeye."

Bay coach Chris Brewer gave Fairview credit for the victory.

"Fairview, bottom line, did the better job of executing," Brewer said. "I give them all the credit. They did a fantastic job. We didn't play our best and they deserved to win it.

Losing Pugliese for extended periods of time was factor according to Brewer.

"Paris got taken out with major foul trouble," Brewer said. "Her sitting for a large chunk of the first and third quarter that hurts. Our team runs through Paris, and not having her there put us out of sync. You would like to think with her in there it might have been different or at least closer."