Poplar Bluff didn't have a senior left when overtime stated on Senior Night.
Doni Everts was on crutches with her right ankle in a hard cast during the pregame ceremony while fellow senior Shelby Sievers fouled out in the final minute of regulation when the Mules overcame a five-point deficit.
Daisha Seltzer sank a tiebreaking 3 midway through the extra period and capped a 10-2 run with a three-point play on a putback as Miller Career Academy edged Poplar Bluff 66-60 in overtime Thursday night at the Senior High Gym.
"It was hard," Sievers said of watching overtime from the bench. "And not having Doni there was hard. We've played together since we were little.
"We're warm-up partners. I looked around and I was alone. It was hard."
Everts, the team's second-leading scorer at 12.0 points per game, rolled her ankle twice Monday night in a loss at Saxony Lutheran. Mules coach John David Pattillo said the cast was "preventative" and that it could come off next week.
"We just went on and did what we normally do," Pattillo said. "We threw some girls in there, started Abby Turner and Sierra Sievers tonight. They played pretty good in the JV game. I thought they did some good things."
Turner helped the Mules (14-8) rally late with a block.
The Phoenix (13-8) led 51-45 before Shelby Sievers scored off a pass from Kiley Bess with 1:35 left in regulation. Sievers then fouled out but Miller's Mauricea Mathis split two foul shots and Hannah Corcimiglia knocked down a 3 off a pass from Katie Pattillo.
Miller Career called a pair of timeouts on the ensuing inbound play before breaking Poplar Bluff's press. Turner blocked a shot at the other end and Bess was fouled in transition. The sophomore sank both ends of the one-and-one opportunity to tie the game with 16.4 seconds left.
The Phoenix missed a 3 at the buzzer.
"I never thought we were out of it, I really didn't," Coach Pattillo said. "We kind of mixed our defenses there a little bit, made them miss a couple of shots."
Seltzer's tiebreaking 3 came at the 2:22 mark of overtime. Mathis, who scored a team-high 17 points, later scored off a back-door cut before a steal by Seltzer led to Ajanae Garrett's layin for a 61-55 lead with 44 seconds left.
The Mules didn't sink a shot from the field until the final eight seconds, missing their first four shots, while going a combined 4 of 8 from the foul line that included the front end of a one-and-one.
Poplar Bluff didn't have an upperclassmen on the floor in overtime.
"We're trying to be tougher, mentally and physically tougher each time we go out there," Coach Pattillo said. "We had our moments. We had our moments that we looked like a bunch of freshmen and sophomores."
Bess scored 32 points and broke the single-season team record for free throws in the first quarter.
The sophomore scored Poplar Bluff's first 10 points but had a string of 20 straight free throws over four games snapped, eight shy of the team record set by Tara Caputo in 1987.
Bess sank her 136th foul shot of the season at the 1:48 mark of the first quarter, passing Mary Kalich's single-season record set in 1990.
Bess broke Kalich's single-game free throw and scoring records earlier this season, hitting 18 of 20 in a 50-point performance in an overtime win at Sikeston.
The Mules led 14-11 after one quarter then went on a 9-2 run to lead by 10. Shelby Sievers got a putback and Bess scored on a drive in the middle with 3:18 left in the half for a 23-13 lead.
The Phoenix rallied started with a pair of steals and allowed just one bucket the rest of the half to get within 25-19.
Miller pulled even at 29-all midway through the third quarter and the teams traded buckets and the lead four times before being tied at 39-all entering the fourth. The Mules missed a chance to pull ahead trailing by a point and the Phoenix got three straight second-chance buckets to build a 51-45 lead with 1:53 left.
"We kept letting them run by us," Coach Pattillo said. "And our girls I think when we get a few of them in foul trouble the others think all of a sudden we have to back off of people and we can't play that way.
"We've got to be more aggressive, especially on the defensive end and we've got to shore that up here in the next two weeks."
NOTES
Miller Career won the junior varsity game 54-44. ...The Mules return to SEMO Conference play Monday at Dexter.