Feet stomping and the fans yelling could be heard even outside the Southwestern College Gym. In a double overtime thriller against the visiting team, the Grossmont Griffins, the Lady Jags held them off 73-71 in the last home game of the season.
“We got them back just because they beat us at Grossmont in overtime too,” said Head Coach Darnell Cherry. “It’s great especially for our players. They’re all freshman and they had to win this game.”
Lady Jags evened the season at 11-11 with one away game left in the season.
Cherry said he is proud of his team, no matter what the winning column might say.
“They performed admirable,” said Cherry. “They’re a great team and a great group of girls. They played hard all year.”
Towards the end of regulation, the Griffins missed a lay-up that would have given them the win. Instead they had to play through double overtime to determine the victor.
Freshman Gabby Robledo came through for her team with A clutch free-throw towards the end of the second overtime. She said she felt the pressure to make them to win the game.
“I thought ‘I just gotta make it,” she said. “I was looking at the score and if they scored one more, they would have been up by one so I’d rather tie it then us lose. It was an amazing win because we were both tied for second. We needed this win.”
Freshman Carla Flores hustled throughout the game and said she could not fight the emotions of the game. Towards the end, she put her hands on her head, looked up at the ceiling and laughed in disbelief that her team was headed to another overtime.
“It was too many emotions going on,” she said. “There was a lot going through my head. We had to win this game. It was too important for us.”
It is games like these that bonds this team, a team that once was filled with strangers. Come next year, they will step on the court with the familiar playing style needed to win in clutch situations.
