HIGHLAND PARK - Robert Louis Stevenson must have written the script for Tuesday's girls basketball game between Indian Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola.
The author of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" would have had plenty of material. One minute, Indian Valley is missing shots and the Mounties are controlling the ball with a stellar possession game. Down goes the formula, and suddenly the Warriors can't be touched as they find their way back into the game.
And then the monster returned - or in this case, Philipsburg's Taylor Harpster, who scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the final stanza, leading the Mounties to a 60-52 Mountain League win over the home club.
Indian Valley coach Steven DeArment admitted it was almost surreal watching the back-and-forth tilt throughout the contest.
"It really was. The first half, I don't even know what to say. I feel like we dominated play," he said.
And except for a couple of early and late minutes, that's true. The Mounties got the first couple of buckets - mostly because balls just wouldn't fall in for Indian Valley - but when Philipsburg sent Dani Treaster to the line midway through the period, she dropped a pair to give her team its first edge.
And then, as the first quarter played out, Indian Valley got in front of the ball, committing several acts of larceny that led to a 15-11 Warrior led after one. That trend continued in the second, where the Warriors suddenly had the edge in possession, and time to work the ball around the basket.
They also had the advantage of Harpster being on the bench. The 1,000-point scorer for the Mounties drew her third personal early in the second, and sat out the rest of that stanza and most of the next. It took a bit for Philipsburg to regroup, but that's exactly what happened - and the final minute of the half was nothing less than painful for the Warriors.
It started with the first trip to the line for the visitors, with 1:05 left before the break. Mackenzie Wilson sank two against a seven-point lead. Then Maureen Witters, who had just one goal in each period before that, dropped a long ball to cut the lead to a pair. With 20 seconds to play, she hit a 2-pointer, knotting the score.
And on the buzzer, bench player Danielle McKnight got her only score of the game, another 3-pointer, giving the Mounties a 10-0 run in that final minute and a 25-22 lead heading into the locker room.
The fact that the top scorer was sitting made it only more difficult for DeArment to swallow.
"That's what really makes it tough. We had their best players on the bench," he said.
Indian Valley would get no closer in this game. In fact, the Warriors only stayed close a few minutes into the second half, giving up another run - seven points this time - after the last time they were within three. In the fourth, the Warriors got down as much as 13 when the Mounties rattled off 11 of 13 points before Whitney Corbin, who led her team with 18 points, hit her fourth and final 3-pointer.
"They stopped doing what got them there. I just don't know what happened," DeArment lamented. "We just stopped playing fundamental basketball."
Philipsburg won the JV game, 42-18. Indian Valley (1-3, 1-3) will appear in the Berwick Holiday Classic tournament Monday and Tuesday.
