Nguyen beats buzzer as Penn-Trafford girls edge Norwin
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Saturday, January 20, 2018 | 10:21 AM
Her last name is pronounced, “win.”
Sarah Nguyen caught the ball and heaved it high into the air.
When her floating 3-pointer fell through the net Friday night in Harrison City to beat the final buzzer, it sent the Warriors crowd into a frenzy, and sent rival Norwin home with a tough loss.
Injury-depleted Penn-Trafford clipped Norwin, 38-37, in a Section 2-6A game that saw the Warriors save their best for last.
“I caught it and knew there was only five seconds left so I had to quickly shoot it,” Nguyen said. “I shot it really high because there were people in front of me. I thought it was an airball. Then I saw go in and it was a great moment in my life.”
Bella Long scored 11 of her team-high 13 points in the second half, and Stephanie O'Donnell scored 10 for Penn-Trafford.
Penn-Trafford played without injured starters Mackenzie Aunkst, Raegan Panza and Rachel Casper. But fill-ins played well for the Warriors (7-7, 3-3).
Jayla Wehner led Norwin (6-8, 4-2) with 10.
Penn-Trafford led just 6-5 after the first quarter but trailed at halftime, 16-14, and 27-20 after three quarters.
Norwin took a 32-23 lead with about four minutes to play. But the Warriors used a 7-0 spurt to get within 32-30 and the teams traded free throws until Long's corner 3 cut the deficit to 36-35 with 28.6 seconds left.
Norwin's Magen Polczynski made a free throw with 6.5 seconds to make it 37-35.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.
Tags: Norwin, Penn-Trafford
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