Forest Park girls to play host

By Dave Utnik

Published: February 29, 2008

Even after 22 victories and a guarantee that the Forest Park girls’ basketball team will play in the Group AAA state tournament, center Briana Scott isn’t ready to celebrate.

Give her another day.

If the Bruins win again tonight at home against George Washington-Danville, Scott will be in the mood to cheer.

She’s waited an entire year for a chance to make amends for last season’s overtime loss to Stonewall Jackson in the Northwest Region Tournament championship game and that moment has finally arrived.

“Losing that game last year crushed us all,” Scott said. “After that game we realized that this year we were going to get it done. The returning players all decided that we weren’t going to let it happen again.”

New head coach Rebecca Tillett embraced that notion, too, and the Bruins — with at least four future Division I players in the starting lineup — won 17 consecutive games to return to the re-gional finals.

“We’re very happy to be where we are. We’re very thankful to be where we are,” Tillett said. “The thing we’re saying is we’re never satisfied so we have to keep working. We want to win it back and set momentum up for the state tournament.”

There is plenty of motivation for Forest Park, which has qualified for the state tournament in each of the past six seasons: A victory over the Eagles would allow the Bruins (22-4) to host a quar-terfinal round game in the state tournament and give them four Northwest Region titles in the past five seasons.

While junior Danni Jackson is the team’s leading scorer and playmaker, the Bruins typically rely on contributions from eight players — especially on defense — and that depth will be vital against G.W.-Danville.

The starting five — Jackson, Amber Epps, Deidre Richardson, Scott and Gerda Gatling — com-bined for 51 of Forest Park’s 66 points against Riverbend on Thursday and the Bruins’ top reserve, Shayla Drakeford, is one of the region’s best defenders.

“We’re in a really important spot right now in the season,” Scott said. “We really need everyone to contribute.”

The Eagles have some depth, too, and have used it to win 13 consecutive games as well as the Western Valley District championship.

Senior Erica Warren, the district MVP, scored a game-high 21 points in Thursday’s 60-41 semifi-nal victory over Potomac. Stopping her will be the priority for the Bruins, who press and trap as well as any team in the state.

“Once the season got started we knew what the main focus was and that’s to get back to states like we usually do,” Jackson said. “We came to practice and were determined to work hard.

“We’ve grown every single day. We’re just like a big family and we love each other. Once we get on the court we put all that love together and it creates something good.”