JAY – The Jay Tigers feel there are three keys to every game – free-throw shooting, turnovers and rebounding. Monday night, they learned that they don’t always need all three to add to their win column, but it sure would make things a lot easier.

Strong free-throw shooting down the stretch proved to be the difference as the Tigers held off a late charge from Winthrop, 63-57, at Tiger Dome.

Trailing by eight to 10 points for much of the game, the Ramblers (4-5) adjusted their press to force 14 second-half turnovers, then rode 11 fourth-quarter points from Katie Pushard (22 points) to pull within three of the Tigers midway through the quarter. Jay (7-2) held them at bay, however, by converting seven of eight from the charity stripe in the final three minutes.

“We do some crazy things sometimes to make games close. We get the ball in the middle and expect not to be guarded, but that’s what they did,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey. “Pushard was tough in the second half. We couldn’t stop her. We tried to help off her and she was scoring in the paint, pretty much penetrating at will.”

Jay led by seven when a Pushard hoop and two Abby Cobb freebies pulled the Ramblers within three again with 2:39 left.

Pushard followed two more Fetterhoff free throws with a pullup jumper to make it 60-57 with under a minute left, but DeMillo converted two more at the charity stripe to make it a two possession game again with 35 seconds to go. Amanda Garwood’s 3-point attempt that would have pulled Winthrop within two rolled in-and-out and Jay was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“We got behind too much. That’s the second game in a row we’ve fallen behind early,” Winthrop coach Lonney Steeves said. “DeMillo broke us down. We didn’t have an answer at the beginning.”

DeMillo led the Tigers with a game-high 26 points and six assists. Fetterhoff added 12 points and nine rebounds and Katie Mastine also poured in 12 points. Emilie Knight dominated the offensive boards for the Ramblers, finishing with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Knight kept the Ramblers in the game with her work on the offensive glass early and helped them survive a 13-point first quarter by DeMillo.

“It seems like every game our rebounding isn’t anywhere close to where we want it, obviously because of our size,” Bessey said. “You get someone like Emilie in there and it’s going to make it tough.”

The Tigers led 19-13 after one period, then extended the lead to 12 in the second quarter by getting some easy hoops off Winthrop’s press.

“We knew coming into the game that Emilie was a little sore with her knee and we told Sara that if she really put it to the floor she could get out and get some open layups,” Bessey said. “She did a great job running the floor and Kaylie made some great passes to find her.”

Mastine’s buzzer-beater put the Tigers up, 37-29, at halftime. Winthrop adjusted its pressure in the second half and forced as many turnovers in the third quarter (eight) as it did in the entire first half.

“We backed our zone press up a little bit and tried to make (DeMillo) give the ball up,” Steeves said. “We had a hard time denying it back to her. She’s so active.”

Despite the problems they were starting to create defensively, the Ramblers shot just 4-for-13 in the quarter and were down 10 heading into the fourth. Jay maintained that cushion until Knight sandwiched a pair of hoops around Pushard’s layup off a Garwood steal that closed out a 7-0 run to pull the Ramblers within 54-51. DeMillo spotted Courchesney underneath the hoop on the Tigers’ next possession, though, for Jay’s final field goal.