By DOUG DONNELLY

OTTAWA LAKE – The Whiteford Bobcats knocked off the Tri-County Conference leader Thursday, coming from behind in the final seconds to beat Morenci, 28-25.

It was Morenci’s first TCC loss of the season.

“The girls played hard all night long,” first year Whiteford coach Nick Brillhart said. “We’ve been trying to instill that confidence in them all season. Hopefully tonight opened some eyes if there were any doubts.”

It was a close game throughout with neither team gaining much of an advantage. It was 6-6 after the first quarter, 13-12 at halftime in favor of Whiteford and 20-18 with the Bobcats ahead going into the fourth quarter.

The two teams were knotted at 23-23 with two minutes to play in the game. Whiteford’s Emily Hill made a free throw with 1:30 left to give the Bobcats the lead, but Morenci came back with an offensive rebound bucket by Alyssa Gibbs with 1:11 left, giving the Bulldogs a 25-24 lead.

After a timeout the Bobcats set up their offense. Brooklyn Mills grabbed an offensive rebound with 50 seconds left and the Bobcats called another timeout.

After dribbling near the top of the key for a few seconds, Hill drove into the lane where she lost control of the ball, but Mills picked it up, took a dribble and made a layup to give the Bobcats a 26-25 lead.

“Brooklyn had at least two huge rebounds to keep our offense going,” Brillhart said.

Hill iced the game with a steal and two free throws with five seconds remaining.

The Bobcat defense held Morenci to nearly 20 points below its season scoring average.

Brillhart said the team was deliberate on offense, but also made good decisions.

“If something didn’t work, we pulled it out, ran our sets and ran something else,” he said. “We did a great job of executing our offense and I think that put some pressure on them.”

Gibbs was the only player on either team to reach double digits. She scored 10 for Morenci (12-3, 7-1 TCC).

Hill led Whiteford (9-5, 6-4 TCC) with 8 points and five steals. Annabelle Gapp had 14 rebounds while Mills had eight. The Bobcats outrebounded Morenci 30-20 and shot 14 free throws compared to Morenci’s two.

Morenci 6 6 6 7 – 25

Whiteford 6 7 7 8 – 28

MORENCI: Rorick 3(1) 0-0 7, Gibbs 5 0-2 10, Valentine 2 0-0 4, Bachelder 2 0-0 4. Totals 12(1) 0-2 25.

WHITEFORD: Alexander 0 2-2 2, Hill 1 6-8 8, Schober 1(1) 0-0 3, Rasor 2(1) 0-2 6, Mills 2 0-0 4, Gapp 2 2-2 6. Totals 8(2) 10-14 28.