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| Girls Preparatory's Chadarryl Clay drives past Briarcrest's Lauren Douglas (30) and Robyn Peete. |
It took Chattanooga Girls Preparatory School a whole half to get its offense going Saturday. Turns out, one half was all the Bruisers needed.
GPS rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat Briarcrest Christian, 55-50, at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena, denying the Saints their fifth state championship. The Bruisers went into the locker room down 30-17, but they got their running game going and outscored the Saints 38-20 over the final two quarters.
"We just got away from playing Briarcrest basketball," said Saints coach Lee Smith. "We just stopped doing the things that made us successful. We looked like we were two steps slow in the second half. We played like our feet were in quicksand."
Shooting also let the Saints down: Briarcrest was 50 percent from the floor in the first half but just 33 percent (7 of 21) after. Lauren Douglas had a fine game for the Saints, scoring 21 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. But she picked up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter and had just one point after halftime. Briarcrest made just one basket over the last 61/2 minutes.
"We got too comfortable after halftime," said Taylor Pugh, who had five points and 15 rebounds in her last game for the Saints.
And of course, the improved play of the Bruisers (23-1) didn't help. Tournament Most Valuable Player and Miss Basketball winner Chadarryl Clay said her team took coach Susan Crownover's halftime speech to heart.
"She just told us the first half was over, forget about it," she said. "We knew we had to pick it up on defense and take control on offense."
Jeneh Perry, who picked up two fouls in the first quarter to earn a quick seat on the bench, was instrumental in keeping Douglas from duplicating her first-half success.
"She just said, 'I'm going to shut her down,' and she did," said Clay, who battled through 4-for-18 shooting to finish with 12 points and six rebounds.
Emoni Harvey scored in the paint to cut GPS' lead to 49-48 and after a GPS turnover, the Saints got the ball back with a chance to go in front. They worked inside to Douglas, who missed, and GPS got a back-breaking 3-point play from Tori Kemp to make it 52-48 with 27 seconds left.
Adrienne McKay hit two free throws to cut the lead to two and Clay answered with one more to make it 53-50. Douglas then got a good look at a 3-pointer from the top of the key but missed, and GPS salted it away with two more from the line.
"Our goal was to win a state championship, and we came up short," said Douglas. "We fought hard all season long. We did the best we could."
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