THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602240470
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATTI WALSH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Ciara Lascano's 3-foot jumper off the glass with two-tenths of a second to play lifted Western Branch over top-seeded Churchland 45-43 in Friday's Southeastern District girls basketball tournament final at Oscar Smith.
Both teams advance to the first round of the Eastern Region tournament on Monday. Churchland will host Bethel and Western Branch will play at Menchville.
Millette Green of Western Branch scored on a short jumper with nine seconds remaining to tie the game at 43. Nicole Council tried to inbound the ball for Churchland, but Green intercepted and dished off to Lascano, who was underneath the basket unguarded.
``I saw her eyes,'' Green said. ``I knew she was going to pass it.''
And that's all Council was thinking, though Churchland coach Duke Conrad was calling for a timeout.
``I was thinking, `Just get the ball in,' '' said Council, who was named the tournament's most valuable player. ``I couldn't hear (Conrad) over the crowd screaming.''
Conrad said: ``They scored with nine seconds left and we had the ball and a timeout. We had discussed that. Evidently they didn't hear me. We had a breakdown. The bottom line is, if we're better than 3 for 13 from the free-throw line, we win the game.
``We weren't very disciplined. Our shot selection was horrible and our passing was horrible. We broke their press consistently and we came away with nothing. You can't do that in a game like this.''
Churchland (19-3), however, was nearly flawless early on as they built a 24-15 lead before intermission, Council scoring 15 of her 19 points in the first half.
Western Branch (17-5) held Council to a basket in the third quarter and trailed by 37-29 going into the final period.
Reserve Jaci Morris, who sat out the first quarter, sparked a 10-2 Western Branch drive in the opening 3:23 of the fourth quarter as the Bruins pulled within a point. She found Brandi Woodard in the lane, hit a 3-pointer and finally gave Western Branch its first lead when she converted one of her three steals into a layup to make it 40-39.
``I just knew we could win tonight,'' said Morris, who finished with a season-high 13 points. ``We had something to prove to coach (Kim Aston), our fans and ourselves. After all these years, we've finally got something to take back to our school.'' by CNB