By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports 

SOLON – It took more than 17 minutes on Thursday night for Dyersville Beckman to make its first field goal but when it mattered most the Blazers couldn’t miss.

Dyersville Beckman overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to force overtime and made its first three field goal attempts in the extra session to pull out a 44-39 win over Solon in a WAMAC East Division struggle in Solon.

Beckman (7-10, 2-8 WAMAC) missed all 16 of its field goal attempts in the first half and its first 17 field goals in the game but got a lift from Kylie Bildstein who scored 19 of her game-high 22 points in the second half to snap a six-game losing skid.

Solon led by 10 at the half and had a six-point cushion with under seven minutes to play but couldn’t hang on, falling to 6-11 on the season and 4-7 in WAMAC East play with its second loss of the season to the Blazers.

“I feel like we have been playing really well, they had been struggling a little bit and I thought we had good momentum coming in,” Solon coach Lisa Bishop said. “We just didn’t keep our energy level up for the whole game.”

Beckman forced overtime when Bildstein hit a pair of free throws with 4.1 seconds left.

After making nine field goals on 23 percent shooting in regulation, Beckman hit three field goals in less than three minutes in overtime to take a 40-36 lead it would never give up.

Tara Hansel scored on a layup five seconds into overtime and the 6-foot-1 Bildstein twice scored on lob passes to the post as Beckman overcame 28 percent shooting and 28 turnovers to win.

Solon, which played the final quarter and overtime without leading scorer Josie Durr who left with an injury, shot 27 percent and was 1-of-20 from 3-point range.

“I thought our defensive intensity went down,” Bishop said. “We got tired, our hands went down and obviously not having Josie in there makes a big difference.”

In the first meeting in December the teams combined to shoot 27 percent from the floor in a 31-28 Beckman win.

Thursday was another defensive struggle from the outset.

Solon was held scoreless for the final seven minutes of the first quarter that ended with Beckman holding a 3-2 lead.

The Spartans opened the second quarter with 13 unanswered points, holding Beckman without a point until Shannon Hoffman made a pair of free throws with 9.7 seconds left in the half.

“If shots are going in you just have to keep pushing through it and hope they will fall,” Solon senior Julia DeValk said. “We have had quarters like that where shots aren’t falling and then we come out the next one and everything is falling.”

Beckman closed to within 22-18 after three quarters and took its first lead since 3-2 on a Bildstein 3-point play with 4:39 left.

“I felt like they played a little bit scared in the first half and then they came out in the second half with a little more confidence and we came out a little lazy,” Bishop said.

Beckman led 32-29 following a Hoffman 3-pointer with 2:05 left but Solon scored the next five points to take a 34-32 lead.

Bildstein forced overtime with her free throws and then scored twice in the opening three minutes of the extra session to put the game away.

The senior center finished 7-of-9 from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds as Beckman held a 43-29 rebounding edge.

“They are a lot bigger than us at every single position but I felt like our girls tried to battle down low but they had the size advantage,” Bishop said. “They got that lob down to Kylie and when our hands went down we didn’t have a chance.”

Hanrahan led Solon with nine points while Bryce Hinkel and Marty each had eight for the Spartans.

“There were glimmers of different people stepping up at different times but we never clicked all together,” Bishop said.

Beckman        3  2  13 16  10 – 44

Solon               2 13  7  12   5  – 39

Solon (39) – Alli Prybil 0-4 0-0 0, Bryn Hanrahan 2-6 4-4 9, Taylor Ryan 0-3 2-2 2, Bryce Hinkel 3-5 2-2 8, Gabby Marty 3-7 2-6 8, Brianna Smith 3-10 0-0 6, Julia DeValk 0-1 0-0 0, Erin Kerkhoff 1-1 1-1 3, Josie Durr 1-11 1-2 3, Lexi Stebral 0-1 0-0 0, Team 13-49 12-17 44.

Beckman (44) – Sydney Arens 0-5 2-2 2, Sydney Steffen 0-7 1-2 1, Shannon Hoffman 2-10 2-6 7, Jackie Olberding 0-2 0-0 0, Kylie Bildstein 7-9 8-9 22, Olivia Schlarmann 1-2 0-0 2, Hannah Lueck 0-1 4-6 4, Anika Brehm 0-1 0-0 0, Tara Hansel 2-6 1-2 6, Team 12-43 18-27 44.

3-point field goals – SOL 1-20 (Prybil 0-4, Hanrahan 1-4, Ryan 0-3, B. Smith 0-5, Durr 0-4), DB 2-13 (Arens 0-4, Steffen 0-3, Hoffman 1-5, Hansel 1-1). Rebounds – SOL 29 (Marty 5), DB 43 (Bildstein 12). Turnovers – SOL 20, DB 28. Total Fouls – SOL 19, DB 14. Fouled out – None. Technical Fouls – None.