Atlee sophomore Karlie Suber had to sit out the first meeting of the season between her Raiders and the Hanover girls basketball team due to a concussion. In that game the burden of Atlee’s chances fell on senior Taylor Henderson but the Hawks picked up their first ever win over Atlee.

  On Friday night, Suber got her first opportunity to face the Hawks, but this time Atlee was without Henderson who was lost for the season due to a torn ACL.

  Therefore, Suber wanted to do everything she could to make certain the squad’s star senior didn’t have another bad memory of her final season of high school basketball. “Taking the loss was big for us because it was the first time in school history,” Suber said. “I just didn’t want Taylor to have to lose twice in her high school career and I just really didn’t want to lose tonight.

  Suber got her chance and evened things up in super-fashion, taking control of the game to score over half of the Raiders points in a 44-42 win.

  The victory was only the second Capital District win of the season and fourth overall for an Atlee squad that has faced repeated injuries and adversities. Head Coach Anna Prillaman felt the victory was merely an indication of her team’s character.

  “It was very tough taking that loss at Atlee early in the season,” Prillaman said. “It’s the only time Hanover’s ever beat Atlee in girls basketball so the girls were very down after that. And after Taylor Henderson went down with her ACL I think they were even more down. So to come in here and win against a rival, a very good squad. It says wonders for the program. It says wonders for the girls and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

  “A lot of people would have given up after they saw Taylor Henderson go down because she was really at that time our only scorer,” Prillaman said. “I just told them life throws little speed bumps at you at times and it shows your character in how you deal with them and I couldn’t be more impressed with these 14 and 15 years old are handling it right now.”

  It was Suber’s teammates that got Atlee off to a good start in what was a see-saw battle throughout.

  Atlee’s Clarke Tyler connected on a jumper from the free throw line, Cierra Shelton made back to back jumpers, before Suber drilled a three from the left wing then scored on a layup.

  But Hanover clung close. Atlee held a 15-14 lead with 1:57 to play in the half when Hanover’s Rachel Fehl picked off a pass at midcourt and fed Brooke Throckmorton for an open three.

  Shelton answered with a three of her own but Hanover closed out the half on a jumper from Taylor Woolard and three from Mariah Douglas to take a 21-18 lead into the locker room.

  Atlee stayed in the game by playing an aggressive zone that for the most part neutralized the Hawks’ outside shooters and frustrated Douglas in the paint.

  “We’ve played zone for a long time now only because our man to man is weak,” Prillaman said. “Our feet are slow and we’re not very good in getting in help defense. We’re not very good playing zone but we’ve just kind of had to do that with this team and they’ve done such a good job of improving that this season with getting out on the shooters and we proved that tonight because I don’t think they had many threes and Hanover’s got a lot of three point threats.”

  In the third, Suber showed she was not going to lose without a fight, scoring nine of Atlee’s 13 points in the period to close the Hanover lead to one, 32-31.

  Suber picked up where she left off in the fourth with a baseline jumper, three from the right wing and free throw to give Atlee a 37-34 lead.

  Hanover was hampered shortly into the fourth when Caler left the game with an injury, but like Suber, Douglas continued to put up a fight for the Hawks. Douglas scored on a turnaround jumper and free throw to knot the game at 37 with 4:38 to play.

  With three minutes remaining, Atlee widened the margin to 42-37 on a perfectly executed give-and-go from Maddie Fitzgerald to Steph Staples.

  Woolard closed the gap to 42-40 on a free throw, but again it was Suber with an answer. Shelton found Suber running the baseline for a layup and a 44-40 Atlee lead with 57 seconds to play.

  Battling under the basket, Fehl closed the margin for the Hawks to 44-42 on a garbage goal with 20 seconds left.

  Hanover got the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead as the clock wound down. With 15 second remaining, Woolard drilled a three from the left wing, but Hanover had just been awarded a timeout so the basket did not count.

  The Hawks had one final chance with :04 on the clock. Inbounding the ball under the Atlee basket, Throckmorton connected with Douglas at midcourt, who dished off to Woolard for a three that nearly wedged against the basket as the clock expired.
 
ATLEE (4-9, 2-5 Capital) — Staples 8, Barry 0, Shelton 7, Tyler 2, Booth 0, Suber 26, Mullen 0. Totals 17 5-7 44.
HANOVER (6-11, 3-5) — Woolard 9, Norris 8, Throckmorton 6, Caler 4, Fehl 5, Douglas 12, Lankford 0, Hess 2. Totals 14 12-16 42.
Atlee….................. 11   7 13 13 — 44
Hanover ...............11 10 11 10 — 42
3-point goals — A: Suber 4, Shelton; H: Throckmorton 2.