Skyline steals win on road in OT

RIVERTON — Emily Copier's teammates call her as "Everywhere Emily" because she seems to be all over the court.

She was certainly in the right place in the Eagles 43-41 overtime victory against Riverton Thursday night.

"Toward the end , I was just trying not to let them get to the middle and get past me," said the senior who came up with her one steal at the game's most critical moment. With 3.3 seconds left in overtime, Copier stepped in front of a Riverton player to snag the in-bound pass.

The Eagles led by 10 points in the second quarter when they held the Silverwolves to just two points, both freethrows. Riverton's defense helped the Silverwolves chip away at that lead over the next two quarters, turning the contest into a thriller that demanded overtime to decide it.

"You can never duplicate that," said Eagles coach Deb Bennett. "Even in practice when you put a few seconds on the clock, play against the boys, it just doesn't feel the same. It doesn't feel like this. If you can do this in the pre-season it's tremendous."

The Eagles earned the victory with center Dani Peterson scoring just nine points, although she did grab 11 rebounds. Jenteal Jackson had just one field goal in each quarter except the fourth, when she scored just one point. But the junior point guard came up huge in the overtime, driving the lane in the final seconds and hitting the lay-up to give Skyline the two-point lead.

"That's the perfect position for (Jenteal) to be in at the end of the game," Bennett said.

Jackson said she didn't try to score more in the fourth quarter because she was looking for a layup.

"I was trying to get the best possible shot for us," she said. "Pretty much we wanted a lay-up ... we came back, we fought hard. We definitely didn't want to lose going into the break."

The Eagles game-plan changed just a bit when a field goal by Shannon Hildreth was called a two-point shot instead of a 3-pointer.

"That meant the score was tied, and we didn't have to score," Jackson said. "Then they gave it to me and Deb said, 'Go to work.'"

Jackson finished with 14 points and four assists, while Teresa Uipi also scored four points and grabbed seven rebounds.

"As good as Jenteal (Jackson) and Dani (Peterson) are, and they're good, Skyline is just playing with a lot of team defense and confidence," Riverton coach Ron Ence said. "It was just hard to find some good open shots."

He was pleased with how well the Silverwolves rebounded after a loss to Jordan earlier this week.

"I feel good about my team," he said. "I just felt we played a better game."

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