Rockets post another buzzer-beating win to beat Mt. Zion

MT. ZION -- Brittney Spears' Oops! I did it again might have to be the Unity girls basketball team's new theme song. Earlier this week Lauren Miller hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to give Unity a 45-44 win over Bloomington Central Catholic.

On Friday, sophomore Katey Moore dropped in a buzzer-beater of her own to give the Rockets a 45-43 non-conference win on the road at Mt. Zion.

Despite three Lady Braves players finishing with double figures, Unity's unrelenting defensive effort and tenacity proved to be a better asset in yet another thrilling finish.

In his all of his years coaching high school basketball, head coach Dave Ellars has never won two games in the same seven-day stretch with a shot as time expired. His team improved to 18 wins against five losses after the victory.

"We won Monday, lost on Thursday, won on Friday," Ellars said. "The girls I have are winners, played on the 4th place state softball, ran on state championship cross country team, went to state track, played on Volleyball team that won 30 matches. We have a lot of confidence that if we get behind we can come back."

Raegen Stringer led Unity's scoring effort with 12 points. Maddie Reed also finished with double digits piling on another 11 points. The pair contributed three assists apiece.

Meanwhile, Moore and senior Taylor Henry hauled in a combined total of 21 rebounds. Moore, who also had three blocks and the same number of steals in the contest, recorded 10 of those boards. Henry led the effort with 11 rebounds and two steals in addition to her nine-point finish.

Unity's Lauren Miller was also active in the paint, pulling down four rebounds and poaching two steals. She finished with six points and three assists against the Lady Braves.

Denver Anderson led the Braves with 12 points, Bracie Barnes added another 11, and Karsyn Sloan rounded out her team's top three contributors with 10 points.

Unity returns to their conference schedule to host Pontiac tomorrow evening at the Rocket Center. The JV contest starts at 5:30pm and the varsity game is slated to start directly after.

Box Score

Final: Unity 45 - Mount Zion 43

  1 2 3 4 F
Unity 12 8 13 12 45
Mount Zion 9 15 14 5 43

Unity --
Ray 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Flesch 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Renfrow 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Miller 2 (0) 2-4 -- 6, Steinman 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Stringer 5 (0) 2-1 -- 12, Moore 3 (0) 1-3 -- 7, Reed 0 (3) 2-4 -- 11, Alagna 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, T. Henry 1 (1) 4-8 -- 9, Chandler 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, B. Henry 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0,

Mount Zion --
Schmahl 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Becker 1 (0) 0-0 -- 2, Flemming 4 (0) 0-1 -- 8, Sommer 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Meons 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Rockey 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Kendall 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Barnes 5 (0) 1-2 -- 11, Scharf 0 (3) 1-2 -- 10, Anderson 3 (1) 3-5 -- 12, 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, () - -- 0, () - -- 0,