Extra end shot gives Anderson momentum

Former world champion Kelly Scott of Kelowna and former Olympic trials runner-up Sherry Anderson of Saskatoon staged extra-end heroics on Tuesday night to advance to within two games of qualifying for the Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials next month at Edmonton. Anderson engineered a crucial double-kill through a port, glancing off one of her own stones to erase the hidden enemy counter and score three for a 10-7 triumph over Regina’s Michelle Englot. It was Anderson’s second win of the day. Scott wiggled off a sharp hook in the 10th end against Cathy King of Edmonton when King missed an open takeout leaving the Kelowna team the set-up for a tying deuce. Then Scott stole the 8-7 winner in the extra end with a bury in the four-foot ring when King wrecked on her first rock and then failed to connect on a difficult triple runback with her last. Anderson’s shot was delivered with less than 25 seconds remaining on her shot clock. “I was just glad I had shot because we didn’t have a lot of time to think about it,” said an elated Anderson later. “I had to get through that hole and I just about didn’t.  We were never ever down in that game and you hate to lose that kind.” Anderson and Scott will collide Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the A semi-final. “You say, OK we got the break there, we got the win so let’s keep it going,” said Anderson. “We didn’t have our best game there. We played better earlier today. So when you can win a game like that and you’re not firing on all cylinders it helps, too.” Scott battled from behind all the way against King until the 10th-end turnaround. “The first half of the game we were throwing great and I was giving the wrong ice,” said the Kelowna skip.   “We just had to learn the ice. We didn’t play on this morning’s draw so it takes a little bit to figure out the ice. We just stayed calm and found a way to win and I hope it serves as a springboard.” King, by comparison, was disconsolate with the defeat. “Yeah, we got into trouble when we missed it sitting on the button, there,” she said of the 10th-end flash. You can’t be missing that.  I thought we controlled the game. We just blew it . . . It was one end, really. We’ll have to sharpen up if it comes down to that.” Also moving on to the A semis today were 20-year-old Ottawa upstart Rachel Homan and Calgary’s Crystal Webster. Both won their second straight games and kayoed the No. 2 and 3 seeds in the process. Webster scored four unanswered points to pull away from Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, ON, 7-5.  “We know we have the talent to play with anyone out here,” said the unsung Calgary skip.  “We just have to play our game and make our shots. We’re proud to have stuck with it and pulled out the first two.” Homan shrugged off a three-point deficit manufactured by Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, QC., in the first end, bouncing right back with three of her own. “I missed my two shots at the second end and it’s 3-3,” said Larouche. “For sure, that was the turning point. If we don’t give them that three it’s a different game and mentally harder for them.  But, in the end,” Larouche admitted, “Rachel played better than me.” Said Homan, a third-year human kinetics student at the University of Ottawa. “I think it really put us in a good frame of mind that we got it (the three) right back, and that set the pace for the rest of the game. It was really close; I mean, they were making a lot of shots, and we had to make a lot of shots every end to steal a couple of ends and get the force.” Play resumes Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. with four B-qualifying openers on the women’s side. Combatants will be Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay and Heather Rankin of Calgary, Eve Belisle of Montreal and Amber Holland of Kronau, SK.