The ball careened off the rim into Kiana Scott’s hands and she instantly went back up as time ticked away.
“It was just faith,” said Scott, Monticello’s freshman guard.
It was her teammates who had to have faith immediately after that. Scott drew a foul and went to the free throw line with .8 seconds left. For his part, Monticello coach Josh McElheny, had all the confidence in the world. He told the closest referee he wanted a timeout after she made the first free throw.
Scott was slightly less convinced.
“I was kind of nervous, I thought I was going to pee my pants,” Scott said. “My team really helped me calm down because they were like ‘you’ve got it, you’ve got it, just like practice’.”
Scott never wavered and hit the front end of the two free throws before missing the other after the timeout. Poquoson grabbed the rebound as time expired and Monticello punched its ticket to Richmond and the Group AA, Division 3 final four with a 47-46 squeaker over the Islanders.
Monticello now faces Spotswood at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Group AA, D3 semifinals at the Siegel Center in Richmond.
While Scott was the late hero, it was Meghan Comer’s electric night that kept the Mustangs in the game. The sophomore wing was the focal point of the Islanders gameplan according to head coach Jeff Gross despite the presence of Region II player of the year Molly Shephard and senior point guard Bridget Holleran, but Poquoson couldn’t contain Comer. She poured in 23 points to lead the Mustangs.
“We had to know where she was — we even went to a box-and-one on her down the stretch there to try and make someone else gets some points,” Gross said. “We knew that she was their player.”
Comer buried five 3-pointers on the night, with at least one in each quarter.
“My teammates gave me good passes I was just able to catch it and I kept making them, so it was a good night,” Comer said.
The Mustangs appeared to be on the ropes when they were down by eight and then down by 42-36 with 4:02 left to play. But Comer buried a 3-pointer and cut the lead to three. Then with 1:04 left, Holleran stepped up on the wing and connected on a three to put the Mustangs up 46-44. Poquoson answered on the other end immediately with a putback to equalize. Both teams then turned the ball over, handing Monticello a chance to get the last shot with 21 seconds left. The Mustangs played it out and Holleran got an open look on the wing, but the ball bounced off the rim directly to Scott, who immediately elevated and drew the foul with .8 seconds to play.
Sarah Davis led Poquoson with 14 points while Brittany Frazier notched 10, closing the game with seven fourth quarter points.
Despite Gross’ admitted focus on Comer, Poquoson held Shephard in check as she managed just seven points, but one was a critical fourth quarter bucket. Holleran finished with 10 points including the huge late-game 3-pointer. It was a gritty win for the usually high-scoring Mustangs.
“We just kept battling, we made shots when we had to,” McElheny said. “We’ve done that a lot this year, it’s not always pretty. It’s fun to run up and down the court and put 75 points on the board, but if you win scoring 47, that’s a good night too.”
For Monticello, clearly, Saturday was a good night.
