The Heidelberg girls basketball team celebrates after its 32-31 Division I championship victory over the Ramstein Royals. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
The Heidelberg girls basketball team celebrates after its 32-31 Division I championship victory over the Ramstein Royals. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Heidelberg's Rebecca Luna moves the ball down court against the Ramstein Lady Royals defense Saturday in the Division I championship game in Wiesbaden, Germany. Heidelberg captured the title with a 32-31 win. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Jasmine Young grabs the ball from Heidelberg's Emma Roberts during the Division I championship game Saturday. Heidelberg won the game 32-31. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Katherine Enyeart tries to advance the ball to a teammate as Heidelberg's Kylee Miller defends during the Division I championship game Saturday in Wiesbaden, Germany. Heidelberg won the game 32-31. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Heidelberg's Chelsea Shivers goes up for a shot as Ramstein's Katherine Enyeart attempts to defend during the Division I championship game Saturday in Wiesbaden, Germany. Heidelberg won the game 32-31. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Samia Ladner takes it to the hoop as Heidelberg's Emma Roberts defends and teammate Jasmine Young looks on, during the Division I championship game Saturday in Wiesbaden, Germany. Heidelberg won the game 32-31. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Diamond Allen goes up for a layup as Heidelberg's Kylee Miller attempts a block during the Division I championship game Saturday in Wiesbaden, Germany. Heidelberg won the game 32-31. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
WIESBADEN, Germany - The Heidelberg Lady Lions were hoping to get over an obstacle that has eluded them all season: beating Ramstein.
They did Saturday, and the timing couldn’t have been better.
The Lady Lions captured the Division I girls’ basketball championship, their first since 2009, by squeaking past the Lady Royals, 32-31.
Heidelberg senior Rebecca Luna led all scorers with 17. She was later named the D-I girls tournament’s most valuable player.
“We’re the underdogs and nobody thought we would make it this year,” said Luna, who put the final touches on the bookends of her career by matching the title she won her freshman year.
It was the last of the 10 points scored by her junior teammate Emma Roberts that sealed the deal for the Lady Lions. With 1 minute, 51 seconds left in the game, Roberts was fouled by Ramstein senior MacKenzie Crews, putting her on the foul line with the score tied, 31-31.
After missing the front end of the two, Roberts had one more chance to put Heidelberg back in front.
“I was nervous, I decided to concentrate as hard as I could,” Roberts said.
Her mental mojo worked, as the ball fell through, although neither side could have predicted that would be the final point of the night.
“I thought yesterday was the best feeling, this is even better,” Roberts said, referring to the Lady Lions’ semifinal win on Friday against Kaiserslautern.
Heidelberg was able to eat away a huge chunk of the final seconds, taking advantage of the Lady Royals not fouling right away. With some confusion about the time remaining in the game, the officials set the clock to three seconds, giving Ramstein one more shot as senior Samia Ladner threw the ball inbounds to a breaking teammate.
Lady Lions junior Kylee Miller ruined the Ramstein bid for last-second heroics as she got in the way of the pass and sealed the victory for her team.
“I saw (Ladner) look at the girl, I had to prevent them from getting the shot off,” Miller said.
Ramstein came into the game banged up, missing their starting point guard, junior Kateri Goldammer.
“Usually, she’s the field general,” said Lady Royals coach Nathan Brewster, who added that Ladner, their speedster guard, was also nursing injuries and played at about 70 to 75 percent.
Brewster wasn’t taking anything away from the Lady Lions accomplishments, though.
“I have to hand it to Heidelberg, they came ready to play,” Brewster said.
Heidelberg put a heavy focus on shutting down Crews all night by running diamond-and-one and box-and-one defenses. Despite those efforts, Crews still managed to lead Lady Royals scorers with 10. Ramstein freshman Takiyah Lopez scored six points, while sophomore center Katherine Enyeart added five.
“We found our groove and our team was meshing well; today was just a perfect matchup,” Luna said.
