"Everything else. I think the shock got to them a little bit."

Yet in the blink of an eye, the Bears (13-9) regained their senses and the nine-point lead nearly vanished.

Bear River's Hayle Pali (11 points) hit a bucket and was fouled. After her old-fashioned three-point play, Hurricane coughed the ball up and Shayla Toombs knocked down a trey. Then Felicity Jones, whose skills and athleticism reminds Woodbury of Shanae Vaifanua from a year ago, stole the ball off the inbounds and fired up a three.

Jones' shot, however, rimmed out and Bear River was forced to foul Angela Shields with 18 seconds to go.

After Shields made one of her two free throws, Pali tried a 3-pointer but was blocked by Steglich. Jones (18 points) promptly connected from beyond the arc with about five seconds remaining, but because the clock doesn't stop automatically on a made basket, Hurricane smartly took its time inbounding the ball before passing to Clyde as time ran out.

Inexplicably, the Bears and coach Gary Allen failed to use one of their two remaining timeouts to stop the clock.

"(The end) was a little bit nerve-wracking, but we knew we could do it," Clyde said.

Junior Sadi Hoyt had 10 of her 12 points for Hurricane in the first half as the Tigers watched the Bears reel off six straight points to close out the initial stanza ahead 30-22.

Then Bear River's Jessa Jeppesen exploded for nine of her 14 points in an eight-minute span early in the second half.

With Clyde as the team's lone senior, the future appears bright for Hurricane. Yet Woodbury isn't looking ahead - he likes what he sees now.

"I call them my kiddie corps and they come through," said Woodbury of his rotation, which he estimates averages 15.5 years of age.
"This was mighty important. It was as good as you could expect from the girls."