WHAT’S A FINAL without the Garrison?
Girls’ basketball is yet to find out.
Makaela Rudder came up with a crucial steal with 9.6 seconds remaining and the seven-time queens survived Makela Walcott’s game-high 22 points to keep another championship season alive following Thursday’s 47-46 thriller over Combermere in the Shirley semi-finals at the Wildey Gym.
It was the unbeaten Paddock Road side’s first win decided by single digits this season, booking the defending champs’ 11th successive trip to the title game.
Contrary to the competition’s history, though, Garrison wasn’t guaranteed anything, far less a spot in the finals, not after Cawmere led by as many as six (34-28) in the second half before holding an early 36-31 fourth-quarter cushion.
But Vanessa Reid-Cox and Nikita President combined for the next 14 points unanswered, while Walcott sat out with foul trouble, helping Garrison to a 47-38 lead by the time Combermere’s star guard returned.
However, Walcott went on a tear of her own, scoring six straight before Christina Yearwood capped a menacing 8-0 run that pulled the underdog Combermere squad within one with 1:36 to play.
Neither team scored again, though, as Yearwood fouled out with 31.3 seconds left while Shonica Wharton missed an uncontested lay-up that would have put Garrison up three just moments later.
Luckily, Rudder ensured the gaffe wasn’t a costly one, returning to steal the ensuing last-second inbounds pass from the halfway line while President dribbled out the clock for the nail-bitter.
It was a thrilling finish to a game that seemed anything but in the opening quarter when both teams went scoreless for the contest’s 5:41 under a slew of turnovers.
The battle then truly became one in the subsequent second when Walcott and Reid-Cox traded words along with scores in a 15-15 deadlock.
But Combermere threatened to run away with the contest late in the period, opening a 34-28 cushion when Reid-Cox briefly sat with an injury before Walcott was also forced to the side after picking up her fourth foul seconds later.
Reid-Cox and President led Garrison with 12 points, while Yearwood assisted Walcott with 16.
In the day’s other semi, Winmarie Bowen had six of her game-high 15 points in the fourth as Springer also endured a testing trial before outlasting Queen’s College 46-39 to reach next week’s final.
Playing without the league’s leading scorer, Winmalecia Bowen, the second seeds finished the game on a 14-7 run after the contest was locked at 32 with 5:40 to play.
Dominique Browne added 12 for the winners, while Ashley Daniel and Esther-Joy Ochieng led QC with 13 and ten points respectively.
The final was slated for yesterday at the same venue.
