Pearl Brown made only one shot in Norwalk’s Class 4A quarterfinal game. But it turned out to be the most important one of all.
Brown scored on a follow shot just ahead of the buzzer to give Norwalk a 56-54 victory over Central DeWitt, saving her team to play another day after it let a 14-point lead slip away.
Central DeWitt had tied the game at 54 when Lauren Walker hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 21 seconds left. Norwalk then turned it over to freshman Braylyn Birmingham, whose contested jumper in the lane bounced off the rim.
But Brown, a 5-foot-9 junior who had missed her only previous shot in the game, was there to gather in the rebound on the left side of the basket and she banked in the game winner.
The victory sends the fourth-seeded Warriors (23-1) into a semifinal game against eighth-seeded Cedar Rapids Xavier at 5 p.m. Thursday. Xavier advanced with an impressive 71-57 victory over top-seeded Sioux City Bishop Heelan.
Braylyn and her sister Bailey, a senior, did most of the scoring for Norwalk. Bailey led with 21 points and Braylyn added 16, including a driving layup that gave the Warriors a 54-51 lead with 50 seconds left. Ava Carlson also came up big for Norwalk, grabbing 16 rebounds – nine on the offensive end – and scoring eight points.
Walker led fifth-seeded Central DeWitt (20-5) with 23 points and three steals. Ava Putman, Landre Ruggeberg and Zoey Fuglsang each scored eight points for the Sabers, who made it to state for the third time in five seasons after sharing the title in the Class 5A-heavy Mississippi Athletic Conference.
Norwalk appeared to have taken control of the game when it opened a 32-18 lead after holding Central DeWitt scoreless for more than 5 minutes at the start of the second quarter.
But the Sabers clawed back, tying the game four times before pulling ahead at 51-50 when Putman hit Walker cutting the basket for a layup with 2:11 left. Norwalk regained the lead on Bailey Birmingham’s two free throws, then cleared out to allow Braylyn Birmingham room to drive for the basket that made it 54-51.
Norwalk, which had not played in the state tournament since 2007, made it back in the program’s second season under coach Josef Sigrist, who took the job in the Des Moines suburb after leading West Des Moines Valley to a pair of state championships.
