By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The Trinity Episcopal girls’ varsity basketball team never trailed in last Thursday’s 27-20 win over St. Catherine’s School, but with both teams having trouble finding the bucket, the Titan’s knew possession time was of utmost importance.

“We were just trying to slow the game down a little bit,” Trinity senior guard Jillian Brown said. “Even though they were picking up the pace, we knew if we slowed down the game and held the ball and kept scoring, we would win.”

Slowing down the game was not the problem. The Titans successfully executed stalling tactics in the final minutes and forced St. Catherine players to foul in an attempt to get the ball back.

Down 24-20 with three minutes remaining, St. Catherine’s Candice Brown picked up a steal to give her team the ball. The Saints patiently set up their offense then drove the baseline for a scoring attempt.

Trinity’s Caroline Fletcher grabbed the defensive board and the Titans set up around the perimeter on their offensive end.

St. Catherine players allowed 30 seconds to come off the board before they sent Jennifer Smith to the line. She hit the front end of the bonus to extend the Trinity lead to five.

Fletcher grabbed another rebound on the other end with under a minute to go and was immediately mauled. She missed the free throw but Jillian Brown again kept the Saints’ scoring opportunities to one shot on the other end and showed off her dribbling moves on her way back down the court. With 30 seconds left, she sprinted down the court, dodged two defenders at half court with a behind-the-back move and took the ball straight to the hole.

St. Catherine’s Chaney Maganello stopped the scoring attempt but picked up her fifth foul. Jillian Brown hit both sides of the one-and-one bonus to give Trinity its final margin with 23.5 seconds left.

For both teams, scoring seemed to be the problem.

After a quick start in the first quarter, the lid closed on the baskets in the second quarter. The teams combined for nine turnovers and put up a scoreless first three minutes in the second quarter.

Smith broke the drought with a long 2-pointer.

“If we just kept playing defense, boxing out, we knew our offense would come,” Jillian Brown said.

Brown gave Trinity a 10-point lead as she put on a dribbling clinic down the left sideline. She beat a defender near center court and split two defenders in the post with a scoop shot to put the Titans up 14-4.

However the Saints turned up the heat on their own defense and cut the lead to five midway through the third quarter. Post players Meredith Doswell and Candice Brown took away the post area and forced longer shots. Meanwhile Alexis Crittenden hit a free throw and a 3-pointer at the top of the key to narrow the gap to two just before the end of the quarter.

Jillian Brown opened the fourth quarter with a steal and score to keep the Titans up by four and set up the offensive slow-down.

“We knew St. Catherine’s would be a close game,” Jillian Brown said. “We were just trying to calm down after the first half. We had a lot of turnovers so we were just trying to calm down and play our game.”

She led Trinity with 12 points and eight rebounds and was the only player in the game in double digits. Fletcher added six points and Victoria Smith grabbed six boards.

Doswell led St. Catherine’s with eight points and eight rebounds.