The turning point in Marshall’s 52-44 victory in the Class AA girls basketball quarterfinals Friday may have come with 51.7 seconds left in the first quarter.
That’s when Waubonsie Valley’s Stacey Byrd hit a three-pointer from, oh, about as far away as Aurora to give the underdog and second-ranked Warriors a 17-6 lead.
“She was toasting us in the first half,” Marshall coach Dorothy Gaters said of the 5-foot-8-inch senior.
From that point on, it was No. 1 Marshall’s defense and sophomore Cappie Pondexter who turned up the heat. Pondexter’s 25 points powered the six-time state champions into Saturday’s 11:15 a.m. semifinal in Redbird Arena against Glenbard West.
“Yeah, we know what we had to do to get to (Saturday’s) game,” Rutgers-bound senior Kourtney Walton said. “So we picked up the pace.”
“Cappie obviously had an outstanding game for them,” Waubonsie Valley coach Julie Callan said. “They were isolating her more (in the second half) and she responded.”
Marshall cut Waubonsie’s lead to 25-24 at halftime, then took control for good on Pondexter’s three-pointer for a 29-27 lead with 5:40 left in the third quarter. Waubonsie’s last gasp came when senior Ashley Luke hit her second three-pointer to bring the Warriors (30-3) to within 43-40 with 2:41 left in the game.
“I didn’t play the game I could’ve played,” a tearful Luke said of her high school farewell.
Luke, who will play at Penn State next year, may not have had a more disappointing game all season. The state’s career three-point leader with 437 in her four-year career scored only eight points in connecting on only 3 of 21 shots from the floor–2 of 16 from beyond the arc. The eight points left Luke with 2,883 for her career, sixth on the state’s all-time list.
“I thought we did a good job on Luke,” understated Gaters, who picked up career victory No. 657.
Byrd (18 points) and 5-10 senior Leslie Davenport (10) picked up some of the slack. Gaters said her team’s focus in the second half was to limit Byrd’s opportunities. Mission accomplished. After hitting 5 of 6 first-half shots, Byrd got only two attempts the rest of the way.
Also pleasing Gaters was junior Roshena Jones, who hit all four of her shots from the field and had five rebounds. “She doesn’t look to score,” Gaters said, “but I stay on her because she has the capabilities. I think she’s getting more confident.”
Waubonsie’s last loss was on Dec. 5, in a game Luke missed with a back injury. “A couple of different bounces of the ball and we’re the ones up here with tears of joy, not tears of sorrow,” Callan said.
Walton finished with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Marshall (29-1).
