2000/2001 Game Results Last Updated: December 9, 2000

December 8, 2000  

North 52, Memorial 49 Overtime

Parr helps Huskies sink Abes

She caps 36-point night with 3-pointer at overtime buzzer

By Steve Beaudry
Leader-Telegram staff

Staff photo by Andi Stempniak Larissa Parr (42) maneuvered past Eau Claire Memorial's Molly Menard to take a shot in the first half Friday at the Doghouse. Parr scored a career-high 36 points for Eau Claire North in its overtime win.

Larissa Parr was swallowed in a midcourt celebration. The Eau Claire North senior center's sweaty cheek was smudged by someone else's Columbia blue face paint.

At the same time, some 20 feet away, members of the Eau Claire Memorial girls basketball team were buried in the arms of each other. Their cheeks were home to a few tears.

Raise your hand if this was what you expected in the aftermath of Friday night's Big Rivers Conference intracity showdown at the Doghouse.

Credit Parr for the Huskies' gripping -- and shocking -- 52-49 overtime victory.

"All we'd been hearing for the last few months -- really, all summer too -- was Hudson, Memorial, Hudson, Memorial, Hudson …," said Parr, who capped her career-high 36-point eruption with a game-winning 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer. "We're, like, 'Hey, what about us?'

"I think we wanted to make a statement tonight. We wanted to show people around the conference that they better not overlook us this year."

With the poise and precision Parr and the Huskies (2-0, 5-1) showed in thwarting Memorial (1-1, 5-1), consider the statement delivered.

"She put on quite a show," Old Abes coach Steve Smith said of Parr, who was averaging 12.4 points per game this season after averaging 13.0 in 1999-2000. "Her moves down low, her ability to make things happen on the perimeter, the way she kept some of those balls alive in crucial situations down the stretch.

"That's probably about as inspired and dominant a game as any post player can have."

How dominant was Parr's performance?

Consider: In Memorial's five games this season prior to Friday, the Old Abes won all five and permitted an average of 33.8 points per game in the process. Parr scored more points than four of the teams Memorial had played.

"I thought our defense played well," Smith said. "Everything Larissa Parr got tonight she earned."

Parr's explosive performance began innocently enough, with her scoring six points in the first quarter and the Old Abes leading 14-9 entering the second quarter. She picked up steam by scoring nine in the second as Memorial took a 22-21 edge into intermission.

The Abes' lead swelled to 38-33 entering the fourth quarter, and Becca Carstensen's 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer seemed to give Memorial gobs of momentum.

Parr single-handedly took it away, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter. As importantly, with the Abes setting up a last-second shot under their basket in regulation time's waning seconds, Parr made a steal at the buzzer.

The teams swapped baskets in the overtime session, with Memorial forward Molly Menard's putback of a Joanna Leafblad miss with 35 seconds left forging a 49-49 tie. The Huskies called timeout with 24 seconds remaining.

"We set up a play for Anne Connell to shoot from the right corner at the last second," Huskies coach Dan Sippel said. "But, as we rotated into position and the time kept ticking away, Larissa didn't have time to make the last pass."

Said Parr: "There was no time left. Everyone was screaming. All I could do was shoot and hope. When I saw it go in, I was, 'Oh, my gawd! We won!' "

Within seconds Huskies fans poured from the bleachers, and center court became a jumble of arms and smiles and hoots and hollers.

Leafblad paced Memorial with 17 points, and Menard had a game-high 10 rebounds.

"This is just what we needed to get us on track. We hadn't been playing up to our potential lately," said Sippel, whose team was coming off a 50-49 overtime loss Tuesday to a La Crosse Logan team the Abes had beaten 44-26 in their opener. "We really came to play tonight.

"We don't want to get too giddy about this win. It's still so early in the season … but, oh, what a battle. We were going through the handshake line, and you could just see in everyone's faces how much they put into this one. This is what high school basketball's all about."

EAU CLAIRE MEMORIAL (49)

FG-A FT-A TP: Jess Huettl 2-9 2-4 6, Joanna Leafblad 6-17 0-0 17, Becca Carstensen 2-4 0-0 6, Melissa Kaiser 0-2 0-0 0, Molly Menard 4-10 1-2 9, Amanda Buchholz 4-10 3-6 11, Christine Graham 0-3 0-0 0, Bekah Howard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-55 6-12 49.

EAU CLAIRE NORTH (52)

Anne Connell 2-2 0-0 5, Lindsey Rongstad 0-4 1-4 1, Kricket Whyte 3-8 0-0 6, Andrea Thorsness 1-5 0-0 2, Larissa Parr 17-25 0-2 36, Amanda Eisold 1-3 0-0 2, Rian Bauerkemper 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-48 1-6 52.

Eau Claire Memorial 14 8 16 7 4 -- 49

Eau Claire North 9 12 12 12 7 -- 52

3-point goals: Memorial 7-16 (Leafblad 5-9, Carstensen 2-3, Graham 0-1, Huettl 0-3), North 3-5 (Parr 2-3, Connell 1-1, Rongstad 0-1). Rebounds: Memorial 36 (Menard 10, Buchholz 7), North 29 (Parr 7, Rongstad 6, Thorsness 6). Fouls: Memorial 10, North 10. Turnovers: Memorial 11, North 15.

RECORDS: Memorial 1-1, 5-1; North 2-0, 5-1.

Beaudry can be reached evenings at 833-9212 or (800) 236-7077 or at steve.beaudry@ecpc.com.