With her Nokomis girls’ basketball team boasting a size advantage on the defending state champs from Leavitt, Dionne wanted the team to utilize its height. As the game wore on Tuesday, Dionne made that clear in no uncertain terms.

“I don’t think we realized it in the first half that that’s what we needed to do,” said the Nokomis coach. “It took a couple of timeouts and me screaming at them, ‘Get the ball inside.'”

The Warriors did just that and with Leavitt’s foul trouble on two starting post players, that size advantage proved the difference. The Hornets lost two starters to foul trouble and Nokomis edged out Leavitt, 61-60, in overtime.

“That’s what was working for us,” said Dionne. “When we climbed back into it, that’s what was working. We had to get it to them inside. It finally clicked.”

Warrior post player Anna MacKenzie had 20 points while fellow inside player Marissa Shaw added 19 in a thrilling rematch of last year’s Class B state championship game. Leavitt won both meetings last year, but Nokomis won two years ago in Turner.

“I knew we could do it,” said Shaw, who was on that team that beat Leavitt in 2010. “We worked hard, but we definiteluy knew it was going to be our hardest game. We pushed through.”

Leavitt got 39 from Kristen Anderson and 13 from Adrie Newton. Newton fouled out late in regulation and Amanda Jordan fouled out in overtime. The Hornets did well to get their post players that far into the game after battling foul trouble from the start.

“It puts a lot more pressure on us with what we could do defensively and offensively,” said Leavitt coach Tammy Anderson. “When you don’t have Newton, the big scorer down underneath, it puts more pressure on your offense to get open looks. The kids did a good job, but it’s tough.”

Leavitt shot 1-for-5 in overtime before a last second field goal cut it to a one-point game. Nokomis was able to key on Anderson and force her to take the tough shots. She hit a pull-up jumper with 1:43 left to tie it 58-58 but that would be Leavitt’s last hoop until Sarah Frost scored at the buzzer.

“That was our game plan for the whole game, but it seemed to work more for us down the stretch,” said Dionne of making Anderson work for her shots.

Nokomis broke the tie from the free throw line in the final minute of overtime. Kylie Richards sank one with 1:11 left. After an Anderson miss and MacKeznie rebound, Kelsie Richards sank a free throw with 31 seconds left.  After another Anderson miss, Kylie Richards made it 61-58 with a free throw with 10 seconds left. Leavitt had one last try. Anderson’s attempt at a tying 3 just missed and Frost put back the rebound.

“When you’ve got two of the best scorers in the league and one of them is sitting on the bench, that makes it a little easier,” said Anderson.

Leavitt opened an early lead thanks to a 17-2 run early in the second. The Hornets took advantage of 14 Nokomis turnovers and scored 11 straight. Anderson finished the first with five straight points to open a 19-14 lead. Then After a Mariah Treadwell basket, Newton scored six in the post and Anderson added a 3 that made it 31-16.

“We had a lot of turnovers and knew we just had to get our heads back into the game and we did,” said Shaw.

The Warriors  (12-0) turned that around with a run of its own. Nokomis finished the half with 10 straight. MacKenzie did most of the damage inside with eight points off the boards.

“We knew they were tough on the boards,” said Anderson. “We wanted to get a couple of over-the-back calls because we’re very small, especially with Newton in foul trouble and Amanda in foul trouble. We’re small and we knew we had to box out and rebound. We knew that was a strength of theirs and they killed us on it.”

Down 31-26 at the half, Nokomis tied it late in the third and finished with nine straight, holding Leavitt to just six points. Shaw had a pair of baskets inside.

The lead traded hands a couple times in the fourth. After Anderson’s free throws made it 48-48 with 3:10 remaining, Lindsay Whitney hit a 3. Then MacKenzie scored in the post for a 53-48 lead with 1:56 left. Anderson answered with a 3 and then hit a pull-up jumper with 1:21 to tie it.

Nokomis had chances to win in the final minute. A turnover and a missed free throw by MacKenzie dashed those hopes. Anderson had a try in the final seconds but missed a shot from the left side, forcing overtime.

“I’m very happy with this,” said Anderson, whose 11-2 team is second in Western B. “Heal points are Heal points, but what’s nice about a game like this is we’ll learn from it.”

[email protected]