Stonewall girls continue to be perfect
Jeff Mankie/For the Potomac News
Stonewall Jackson’s Kyani White (2), left drives into Osbourn Park’s Rachel Gordon (42) in first quarter action of the girls Cedar Run District Finals at Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas on Saturday.
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By DAN CLENDANIEL
For the News & Messenger
Published: February 23, 2008
But Stonewall sud-denly went cold from the field and the Yellow Jackets decided that they had a chance to dethrone the Raiders as district champions.
Over the middle part of the game, the Stone-wall 12-point lead sud-denly had dwindled to one point (33-32) when OP’s Rachel Gordon hit a foul shot in 2:26 to play in the third period.
The Raider offense, which had missed nine three-point shots and made only two field goals since the end of the first period, needed a boost.
That boost came in a return to form of their outside shooting. In the final two minutes of the third period, the Raiders hit three 3-point shots (two by Kyani White, one by Gwen Washing-ton) to go on an 11-1 run to end not only the third quarter but also the upset hopes of the Yel-low Jackets.
Stonewall won the game, 63-45, to keep possession of the district title and remain un-beaten.
The Raiders host Po-tomac in the Northwest Region opening round on while Osbourn Park will play at Forest Park. Both games are on Tuesday night.
After a strong first quarter, White who has hit 52% of her three-point shots this year, struggled with her long-range-shooting for nearly the next two quarters.
Still, she did not hesi-tate to launch and make those two critical three-pointers when Osbourn Park was on the verge of taking the lead.
“We needed to score at that point,” said White, who finished with 17 points. “I was confident I could hit those shots. You have to let go of the fear and do what you do.”
Washington, who hit the other key three-pointer in that third-quarter run, played like, well Washington.
The senior scoring machine finished with a game-high 27 points and scored from a variety of distances and angles.
“Gwen Washington, what can I say?,” said Osbourn Park coach Cliff Gorham. “My girls came out and held them scoreless for most of the third quarter but then she gave them a lift when they needed it. That ‘three’ she made was at least two steps behind the line.”
Stonewall’s Samantha Jordan, who finished with 11 points, pointed out the difficulty of trying to beat a team (OP) for the third time in one season.
“We relaxed,” said Jordan. “We never doubted that we would win but we had a let-down.”
Osbourn Park got a big game from sopho-more center Gordon, who finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Kelly Hamner led the Jackets with 14 points.
Stonewall Jackson’s pressing defense forced 27 turnovers, but Raider coach Nsonji White was not pleased that his team got out-rebounded, 39-29.
“Rebounding has been our Achilles heel since I’ve been here,’ said Nsonji White. “But the thing is that in the tougher games, we re-bound well.”
White was alluding to Tuesday’s challenge in facing Potomac and 6-4 center Lynetta Kizer.
“We can’t let a team get two and three shots,” he said. “If we can stop that, we control games.”
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