Time and time again this year, William Monroe’s girls basketball team has risen to the occasion.
The Dragons have rallied from big deficits. The Dragons have closed the door on opposing teams. The Dragons have capitalized on mistakes and made quality opponents pay.
But against John Marshall in the Region 3A East quarterfinals, with a state tournament berth on the line, Monroe’s young squad couldn’t find an answer fast enough, falling 59-49 to the Justices, the defending Region 3A East champions.
“Championship moments and playoff pressure are going to reveal what your habits are,” said Monroe coach Jess Stafford. “Our habit has been to try and throw over people for some reason, so we kept trying to make overhead passes into the post and they started picking them off. Big moment, young kids have never been in this position before…kind of showed.”
In fact, it was almost like the Justices set a trap for the Dragons. With a short bench, John Marshall waited until late to crank up the pressure on a Monroe team that doesn’t have a particularly deep backcourt. That group was made thinner when Makayla Morris tore her ACL just a few weeks ago, leaving Kristin Manz to handle the bulk of the ball-handling duties with help from freshman Sam Brunelle. While Manz dished out six assists on the night, the Dragons struggled against the press in the second half, and finished with 22 team turnovers on the night.
“Our plan coming out (of the half) was to put more pressure on their guards,” said Marshall coach Travis Richardson.
While the press led to some struggles, the Dragons actually appeared to be in pretty good shape with 6:22 to play and up six. Things looked even better a couple of minutes later when Brunelle appeared ready to take over, blocking a shot, grabbing the rebound and dribbling toward half court and drawing a foul.
She scored on the ensuing inbounds pass, then scored again in short order to put the Dragons up by six with under four minutes to play. Brunelle finished with 22 points, 23 rebounds and four assists.
But after that Brunelle-powered spurt, things unraveled rather quickly for the Dragons. The Justices’ pressure cranked up and suddenly they were getting transition buckets and drawing fouls on nearly every possession. The fouls for John Marshall were as good as lay-ups. Naterria Luster and Dajourniek Wingfield combined to go 14-for-14 in the fourth quarter and the Justices were 25 for 28 on the night at the charity stripe as a team.
“They shoot free throws phenomenally well, I don’t know that we’ve faced a team that’s made that many free throws,” Stafford said.
John Marshall surged down the stretch, flipping that six-point disadvantage into a 10-point win with a fast and furious change on defense and tremendous foul shooting.
“It’s kind of going in reverse because last year we won the conference championship and (Petersburg) were the ones who had to go on the road,” said John Marshall coach Travis Richardson. “We’re the ones who had to go on the road this year, but we were prepared for this atmosphere. We wanted to prove a point that we are still the (3A East) region champions. We want to defend that title.”
Luster, the Conference 26 player of the year, finished with 21 points to lead the way for the Justices.
“She’s kind of been the rock for our program the last four years,” Richardson said. “She’s been going hard for us for a long time. When she steps it up, everybody plays well.”
Wingfield notched 20 points on the night to bolster the Justices. Deija Joyner had 10 points.
The loss ends the Dragons’ terrific season, but Stafford was excited about the future and considering the array of players she’ll have back next year, including Brunelle and Dajour Strother who scored 17 points and hauled in six rebounds, including an explosive first half.
“The good news is we have an extremely young team, a lot of kids back next year,” Stafford said. “We’ll remember this.”
