By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–The Helena girls basketball team faced the McAdory Yellow Jackets for the third time this season and after surrendering a late lead, the Huskies fought back to defeat the Yellow Jackets 54-47 in overtime to defeat McAdory for the second time this season.

Niya Oden of Helena and Jero Spigner of McAdory both put on an offensive showcase all game long as Oden finished with 24 points to lead all scorers and Spigner finished with 21 points to lead the Yellow Jackets.

Helena was able to overcome a sluggish first quarter in which the Huskies scored just six points in what Helena head coach Alan Skinner described as “our worst quarter we’ve played all season.”

Helena rallied to take a 19-17 halftime lead and in the second half stretched their lead even further late into the fourth quarter.

Helena led the Yellow Jackets 43-40 with 33 seconds left and Spigner once again came through for McAdory as she made a lay up while getting fouled. Spigner made the free throw to tie the game at 43 and send it to overtime.

Helena took advantage of McAdory’s foul trouble as Spigner and two other Yellow Jackets fouled out, which paved the way for Helena to take a 54-47 victory.

“I’ve never been more happy in my life to see a player foul out than that No. 2 (Spigner) for McAdory,” Skinner said after the game. “Once we started seeing them get into foul trouble and they knew who they needed to attack and knew the matchup, we knew we were in good shape. The fact we won and only hit three threes in the game, that’s good. We shoot a lot of them and like to spread the floor out but that’s big for us to win that one and that we had to fight it out.”