Episcopal, Georgetown Visitation claim ISL basketball championships
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Version 0 of 1. Episcopal freshman Kaylin Shepherd couldn’t stop giggling and sophomore Lexi Weger could barely get words out, transforming into baby-faced teenagers only a few moments after they played like grizzled veterans on the court. The duo still wasn’t sure how to react to Episcopal’s heart-stopping 41-40 win over Flint Hill in Sunday’s Independent School League A championship game at Bullis. Shepherd finished with a game-high 21 points, including 11 of the Maroon’s 15 fourth-quarter points before some tense final seconds against the ISL A regular season champions. “I was just really focused,” Shepherd said. “We’ve been playing with heart and just needed to go all out. I was just trying to do as much as I could to secure the game.” The Huskies briefly took the lead with three minutes remaining following a fast-break lay-in by senior Lindsey Wiley (12 points). Only Weger (11 points) had an answer, completing her most decisive post move of the afternoon to give Episcopal (20-7) the lead for good. A baseline floater by Shepherd one minute later proved to be the eventual game-winner. But Flint Hill (22-6) still had a chance to take the game once Wiley responded by closing the gap to one again. With 11 seconds left, a short jumper rattled in and out, and Shepherd snared the rebound. “We both had to step up, and even though it was going to be hard and it was going to be challenging, we tried everything we could to get our team to the win,” Weger said. Georgetown Visitation girls’ basketball Coach Mike McCarthy always wants junior Sydney Love-Baker to shoot the ball more because she’s “got the nicest stroke on the team.” But too often she’ll pass up open looks, which drives McCarthy to nag her even more. But the message finally seemed to get through Sunday, and the development couldn’t have worked out better for the Cubs. No. 8 Georgetown Visitation blew open the ISL AA championship game after halftime, cruising to a 55-36 win over No. 20 Bullis in Potomac to capture its 10th straight conference title. Love-Baker’s three three-pointers off the bench ignited the Cubs, who used a 17-2 surge during the opening six minutes of the third quarter to turn a taut defensive battle into a rout. “Once you hit one, and the rest of the team gets going and the crowd was wild, the energy is better and the enthusiasm gets better and that makes it a lot better for everybody else,” said Love-Baker, who had 13 points. Georgetown Visitation (25-3) opened the game with an 11-2 run and overcame a size disadvantage by beating the Bulldogs down in transition. Bullis (21-7) battled back to tie the score late in the second quarter, feeding freshman Malu Tshitenge-Mutombo (10 points) inside. But the Cubs’ defense was stifling, and it got a boost from junior Maeve Carroll (12 points) and senior Alexis Gray (11 points), who banked in a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer that “sparked our energy” in the second half, Love-Baker said. “Being able to win it all four years, and being able to go out as champions, is just great,” Gray said. |