Northside girls come up just short
A few minutes remained in the game, and Yasmine Avery had been banged around pretty good.
One time, she got up after a scrum holding her side, and her head coach told the ref to keep it going.
“She’s good, she’s good,” Stefanie Basinger said.
Indeed, and Avery was clutch.
She made one of three free throws with a second left to lift Greenbrier to a 52-51 upset of Northside in a GHSA Class 6A girls playoff Friday.
Northside’s season ends at 17-10 while Greenbrier improved to 13-14.
The Northside fourth-quarter lead was three after Kaliyah Little’s drive down the middle with 55 seconds left, setting up a frenetic finish.
Natalie Wilson tied it with a 3 from the left with 25 seconds left, and Little couldn’t get another drive to convert. The Eagles had the ball with 8.5 seconds left but gave it back with an inbounds pass that missed its mark.
Avery came down the right side and was fouled as she put up a 35-footer. One second was put back on the clock. Her first try was an air ball, but she made the second. She missed the third and Northside got a timeout with four-tenths of a second left.
The inbounds went long and out of bounds without touching anybody, and Greenbrier inbounded under its own basket to finish it.
Little had 22 points for Northside — which suffered from a 12-for-23 night at the free-throw line — while Tamia Sapp added 14. Abbey Steele had 19 for the Wolfpack and Avery 12.
Four who mattered
Little and Quidashasia Dunnom: The young — Little is a sophomore and Dunnom a freshman — backcourt was a blur on defense in second-half stretches. Dunnom had three steals in a row in the third quarter as the Eagles took a 33-28 lead, and Little had a similar stretch in the fourth quarter, although Greenbrier was more patient on offense in the final eight minutes.
Sapp: The 6-foot junior had 14 points along with about four blocks and a half-dozen rebounds as the shorter Eagles tried to maintain inside.
Tikarra Benoit: One of the five seniors on the Northside roster, Benoit had a solid defensive night along with a half dozen rebounds and seven points.
Turning point
The Eagles led 38-31 after three quarters and scored early in the fourth, but a pair of 3-pointers by Abbey Steele kept the Wolfpack close. They took a 46-45 lead on a three-point play by Avery with 3:13 left, only to have Northside to retake the lead on Little’s layup. Two missed free throws kept Northside from taking a four-point lead with 2:02 left.
Worth mentioning
Galloway absence felt: Senior scorer Alexia Galloway has missed about 10 games with a partially torn PCL, taking away Northside’s primary outside threat. So Greenbrier sat in a zone and paid extra attention to perimeter threat Jaliyah Lynch, who didn’t get many good looks.
Observations
Tough night at the line: Northside will look at a variety of things — some sloppy ball-handling, make the unnecessary extra pass instead of taking a shot — and get frustrated, but nothing more than its free-throw shooting. The Eagles were 3-for-6 in the third quarter and 1-for-4 in the fourth, for a 4-for-10 second half.
They said it
Northside head coach Ashleigh Fox: “We knew they had a lot of size. That’s why they sat in the 2-3.”
Fox on missing Galloway: “It’s been since we lost our leading scorer that we’ve struggled to score against zones. She would have been an outside threat in addition to (Lynch). Scoring against the zone was a factor.”
Fox on the foul that decided the game: “I told them, ‘We don’t want to foul (Avery).’ Because she was making her free throws every time she stepped to the line. I don’t mind our girls putting pressure on the ball. It was just a matter of how much pressure and how to lay off.”
Fox on Steele’s 3-pointers in the second half: “The 3s that (Steele) hit hurt us, but I’d rather sacrifice a long shot than an easy shot.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Northside girls come up just short."