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Etowah's Dream Season Ends Against Milton

A last minute comeback attempt fell just short for Etowah

Stephanie Huffman missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer as ’s dream of a deep state tournament run came to a screeching halt at home Tuesday night in a 39-36 loss to Milton.

Huffman single-handedly whittled a 37-30 Milton lead to 38-36 in the game’s final two minutes, but her well-defended attempt to send the game to overtime fell just short.

That frenzied finish may be what haunts Etowah when they look back at what might have been, but Etowah head coach Bob Westbrook attributed the loss not to what happened at the end, but to what happened in the first half.

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Etowah managed to get Milton starters Nikki Dixon, the team’s leading scorer, and 6-foot-4-inch center Tori Waldner in first-quarter foul trouble. Dixon picked up two fouls in the game’s first minute and sat out the rest of the first half, while Waldner got her second with one minute left in the first quarter.

Despite that apparent advantage, Etowah held just a 17-14 lead at halftime.

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“We lost the game because we did not take advantage of them being on the bench for the whole second quarter,” Westbrook said. “I felt like that was when we should have run the score up a little bit. How many? I don’t know. Who knows? But to just be up three with those two girls on the bench for virtually the whole second quarter, that concerned me. When they got back in there they were a totally different basketball team obviously.”

Dixon scored all 12 of her points in the second half, including a banked-in desperation 3-pointer at the third quarter buzzer that put Milton ahead for good.

Despite the abrupt finish to the season, Westbrook was able to look back positively on a season in which his team went 23-5 and earned their first region championship in 20 years.

“To have it end like this on your home floor is not the storybook that we wanted to write,” Westbrook said. “But you know what? Sometimes life throws you a curve. But (the players) will rebound from it. They’re just spectacular. It was just a special run to get to this point. Should we be playing Saturday? I think so. But we’re not, so we’ve just got to take it in stride.”

Huffman was the only Etowah player to score in double figures Tuesday. She finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

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