By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

JAY – As the game tightened and the clock wound down, the scenario might have felt familiar to the Jay girls’ basketball team.

“We work everyday on that in practice,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey. “We play a lot of two-minute games in our practices. We work on when we have the lead, and we practice like we’re down.”

So when Bessey called a timeout late in the game Monday to make sure his team was all on the same page, the Tigers knew what to do. Jay managed to hold off Mountain Valley in a 41-36 victory.

“We had the same situation as we did in practice,” said Jay guard Kaylie DeMillo. “We were up by three with two minutes. So we kind of knew what we were going to do.”

Though Mountain Valley (5-10) kept close to the Tigers (11-5), the Falcons couldn’t seize complete momentum. Despite rallying from a seven-point deficit, the closest Mountain Valley could get was 34-33 with 3:11 left.

“We haven’t gotten over the hump,” said Mountain Valley coach Wade McLaughlin. “We’ve been with everybody. We’re good enough defensively to keep everybody in the game with us, but offensively, we just haven’t come around to where we need to be.”

Both teams had to rely on their high-scoring guards to produce points. DeMillo led the Tigers with 22 points while Kristin Arsenault had 20 for Mountain Valley. The only other double-digit scorer for either team was the Tiger’s Sara Fetterhoff with 11.

“We got a little better contribution from other people,” said McLaughlin. “Not a lot but a little bit, which is a big step for us.”

Jay built a 34-29 lead midway through the final quarter, but Arsenault erased that. She hit a short jumper and then turned a steal into a breakaway to make it 34-33 with 3:11 left.

Jay came right back and opened the lead when DeMillo took the ball to the basket. She missed the layup but put in her own rebound with 2:59 left.

“I didn’t plan to do that but the middle opened up,” said DeMillo. “It felt better than a one-point lead. I felt a little more comfortable.”

Mountain Valley had two possessions to answer but had shots blocked. When Fetterhoff was fouled while double-teamed, she hit two free throws with 1:35 left to make it 38-33.

A 3-pointer by Arsenault with 1:18 got the Falcons within 38-36, but DeMillo finished the game off with free throws in the final minute.

“We just wanted to be patient and not force anything and don’t make any costly turnovers,” said DeMillo.

Arsenault scored 10 of her team’s 16 points in the first half. Her six straight free throws helped erase a 17-10 deficit late in the first half.

“I think we did better on defense and not reaching,” said Bessey. “In the first half, we did a lot of reaching.”

Katie Mastine helped the Tigers build a 27-20 lead in the third, but a pair of hoops from Tanya Martin got the Falcons back within five.

In the fourth, DeMillo set up Fetterhoff for a basket and hit a short jumper. After a Fetterhoff free throw, it was 32-25 with 6:06 left, but Sasha Theriault scored four points to move the Falcons within three.