By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com
Riverdale Baptist defeated the previously top-ranked team in the country about a week before facing off against Good Counsel in the IAABO 134 Girls Basketball Christmas Tournament semifinals Saturday at C.H. Flowers.
So the Falcons should be no problem right?
Not so fast. DigiatalSports No. 5-ranked Good Counsel hung with No. 1 Riverdale Baptist all night, took a brief lead in the third quarter and had a chance to send the game to overtime in the final seconds.
But in the end, Riverdale Baptist moved on to Monday’s finals while Good Counsel had to settle for a hard-fought 47-42 loss.
Riverdale Baptist will now face Forest Park in the tournament championship at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Good Counsel will face C.H. Flowers, who lost to Arundel in the other semifinal, Monday at 4:30 p.m.
“I think it just shows we can play with anyone,†Good Counsel senior guard Katie Sheahin said. “Honestly, I don’t think that rankings mean anything. I think it’s whoever comes to play that night is going to win.â€
Riverdale Baptist (9-2) took an eight-point lead with 1 minute, 22 seconds remaining, but the Falcons (8-1) charged back behind a Sarian Snyder layup and three-pointer by Kelsey Murphy.
Riverdale Baptist guard Rahneeka Saunders missed the front ends of one-and-ones with 26 and 13 seconds left to give Good Counsel two chances to tie. Gillian Abshire missed a two-pointer on the first possession and Murphy had a three-pointer just miss with eight seconds left.
Saunders hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining to seal the game.
“I thought it was going in,†Murphy said. “I was pretty upset when it didn’t. I thought it was a good shot though.â€
Sisters Tianna Hawkins (10 points) and Tierra Hawkins (21 points) paced the Crusaders, who defeated Poly (Calif.) and Clovis West (Calif.) in the Nike Tournament of Champions last week. The Crusaders, who aren’t typically challenged much at home, were in for a battle Saturday.
“They were undermining us,†Tianna Hawkins said. “I was concerned, but I knew we were going to win this game. There was no way we were going to lose to this team.â€
A Tierra Hawkins drive-and-1 gave the Crusaders a 17-8 lead in the second quarter, but Good Counsel charged back behind Symone Lyles (11 points), Bianca Hood and Sheahin — who was phenomenal early on – to bring the score to 23-19 at the half.
Still, Good Counsel Coach Tom Splaine wasn’t happy with the somewhat slow start.
“I thought they were a little enamored by Riverdale Baptist,†Splaine said. “And they are a great team, but you have to come out and just do what you can do every night. That’s the most important thing we have to take from tonight.â€
Good Counsel came out of the half strong and took a 26-23 lead behind two Snyder buckets and a layup by Murphy on a great pass from Sheahin.
Riverdale Baptist scored 13 of the next 15 points, however, to carry an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Crusaders got a couple of big steals that led to easy buckets and the Hawkins sisters started to connect from down low. The two sisters scored five of Riverdale Baptist’s nine fourth-quarter points while Saunders notched the other four.
“Dump it down to either me or my sister and we’re going to try to finish any way we can,†Tianna Hawkins said.
Good Counsel, who defeated a very good Arundel team 50-42 on Friday night, played superb defense Saturday. The Falcons held the Crusaders to less than 34 percent shooting and 18.2 percent from three-point range. But the Falcons shot worse than that in both categories.
“They’re a great team and stuff like that, but I really feel like we could have stepped up our game and played our basketball,†Splaine said. “We really need to measure ourselves against how well we can play, not how good another team is. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got to keep working on our offensive skills.â€
Forest Park 54, C.H. Flowers 29
Danni Jackson led Forest Park to the championship game with 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Forest Park will face Riverdale Baptist Monday and then again on Jan. 5 in a regularly-scheduled game.
Forest Park led by only two points at the end of the first quarter but broke out with 18 points in the second quarter compared to just seven by the host school.
Forest Park went on an 11-1 run after the Jaguars tied the game at the start of the second quarter. Jackson scored nine of the 11 points during the decisive stretch.
Flowers was led in scoring by Nikia Gorham with eight points as the points were very balanced. The Jaguars committed 29 turnovers compared to just 11 by Forest Park, negating their rebounding advantage.
South County 49, Georgetown Visitation 48 (OT)
Simon Antwi scored the game-winning layup with 12 seconds remaining to lift South County to the overtime victory.
Antwi had a game-high 19 points, trailed by teammate Alex Brown with 15 points.
Brown hit a three-pointer with 55 seconds left in regulation to give South County (7-2) a one-point lead. Antwi blocked South County’s first shot on the next possession, but Nina Swanson of Visitation (10-1) rebounded it and got fouled on the put back with 32 seconds left. She made one free throw as part of her four points in the game to tie the game.
The two teams traded three-pointers at the start of overtime until Georgetown Visitation’s Maddy Williams hit a three-pointer with 1:46 left to take the lead. Neither team scored again until Antwi’s game-winning layup.
Largo 63, DuVal 43
Largo jumped out to a 24-13 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
Largo (5-1) was led by Cierra Johnson’s 14 points and 10 rebounds but got scoring from nine different players. Devon Eugene chipped in 11 points and Brittany Taylor and Alexis Holland each had eight.
DuVal (0-5) was led by Tamara Russell’s 12 points and Shaunice Carpenter’s 10.
Arundel 66, Blake 51
Arundel had four players in double-digit scoring to beat a solid Montgomery County team in Blake.
Blake took an 8-3 lead to start the game on a three-pointer by Faye Dunston, who notched 15 points in the game. Arundel struck back behind field goals by six different players to take an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.
The Bengals (2-6) fought back to take a 23-21 lead with three minutes, 45 seconds left in the first half. But Virginia recruit Simone Egwu (9 points) scored six points to cap the half with Arundel ahead, 32-23.
Arundel (4-3) blew out Blake, 19-9, in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Wise 49, Northwestern 35
Wise improved to 5-1 on the season on the shoulders of Morgan Pope, who went 6-of-8 from the field in scoring a game-high 17 points. She also notched 12 rebounds, one fewer than teammate Jordan Swalls.
Wise led by just four points at halftime and six at the start of the fourth quarter after the two teams combined to score just 12 points in the third quarter. But Wise outscored Northwestern (3-3) 14-6 in the final quarter to seal the win. Swalls notched five rebounds and four points in the fourth quarter.
Northwestern was led by 13 points and a game-high 16 rebounds (eight offensive, eight defensive) from Tayonna Jefferson.
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