Comeback Crusaders
By JOHN CATE JCATE@SANFORDHERALD.COM 3 hrs ago
Since the start of the season back in November, few teams in North Carolina had displayed either the talent, or the poise, of the Grace Christian Lady Crusaders.
But it seemed at halftime of Saturday’s NCISAA 1A women’s basketball state championship game that Grace might be cracking under the pressure.
Starting a lineup with two freshmen and two sophomores, and ranked No. 1 in the state nearly all season anyway, the Lady Crusaders lost just once all season, but were staring at the prospects of a second at halftime Saturday in Kornegay Arena at the University of Mount Olive. Two-time defending state champion Victory Christian Center had ended the first half on a 7-0 run and held a commanding 26-15 lead at the break.
Making matters worse, the Lady Crusaders had made a bunch of mistakes, they knew it, and they were mad at each other.
“We were getting some splintering on the team at halftime,” said Grace head coach Chad Revelle. “I asked them, ‘are we going to do this together, or are we going to point fingers?’ I told them we were walking together, and we’d been here before. We were down at the Durham Classic (to Hillside) and we did it. The biggest fix was just us coming together, and not getting rattled and pointing fingers.”
It took Revelle and his assistant coaches, wife Caydee and Danny Strong, a few minutes to calm everyone down. Mistakes can be corrected and Grace knew it could come back against Victory—they’d come back from seven down on Feb. 3 to beat them. Then, they had just a few minutes. Now they had an entire half.
“We had to settle down,” said Revelle. “The first half was chaotic. We let them speed us up, which we knew was going to happen, and we got rattled.”
The Lady Kings didn’t make it easy, but a withering defensive effort brought the Lady Crusaders back. They didn’t lead until less than four minutes remained, but Grace Christian ended its 1A school era as a champion, with a 46-40 victory.
The Lady Crusaders (29-1) took command with some outstanding play from their lone senior in the lineup, Lara Lieckfeld. She made three of four free throws in a 30-second span midway through the fourth quarter, tying the game and then giving Grace its first lead at 37-36 with 3:41 remaining. Victory’s Deborah Orianegbena gave her team the lead back with a basket at the other end, but Lieckfeld wasn’t done.
In the third quarter, she’d knocked down a key 3-point basket in the early part of the Lady Crusaders’ comeback. Victory, which was double- and triple-teaming Sarah Strong in the middle all evening, basically ignored Lieckfeld, who positioned herself along the baseline. With exactly three minutes left, she brought down the rain again. Left open in the right corner, she took a pass and let fly from behind the arc. The ball hit nothing but net and set off pandemonium among the hundreds of Crusader fans behind her. Grace had the lead again, 40-38. It was the final lead change of the game.
Lieckfeld had been the star for Grace last season, averaging over 18 points per game, but had set any ego aside for the good of the team when the newcomers arrived this season. The last second half of her career at Grace may have been her finest.
“They were centered on Sarah so much that I told them to spread it around the baseline, and Lara was wide open,” Revelle said. “I told her on the bus this morning that (Victory) was going to forget about her sometimes. At halftime, I told her she wasn’t being as strong as she could be. She stepped up like a senior in the second half.”
Lieckfeld had brandished the dagger, but Strong had done the heavy lifting in the comeback. Grace got a stop at the other end and then the 6’2” Division I prospect got inside, missed a shot, got her own rebound and scored. Victory tried to race downcourt and beat the defense, but Strong got back and blocked a close-in shot.
The Lady Kings’ Zaria Gool scored with 90 seconds remaining to make it 42-40, and then Grace’s young guards, Danauje Brooks, Halisi Whitley and Miyah Campbell, showed their stuff. For 53 seconds, they played keep-away while Victory fruitlessly tried to steal. Finally, with 37.6 seconds left, they fouled. Brooks missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Grace held, Campbell drew a foul, and she made her free throws with 12.6 seconds left to make the score 44-40. Strong was fouled with 3.9 to play and she made two as well for the final margin.
Strong ended the game with 24 points and 22 rebounds, with 18 of her points in the second half, many powering through multiple defenders who stretched the rule book in their efforts to stop her. Lieckfeld had 11 of her 12 points in the second half.
The Lady Crusaders entered the contest having scored 300 points in their last three games. No one was under any illusion that Victory (21-11) would be the same sort of game, but the first half was a struggle. Grace fell behind 8-2 after just two and a half minutes and was down 17-8 by the end of the opening period.
The Lady Kings kept pressing their advantage in the second quarter. Victory is unusually quick and athletic, and they wanted to push the tempo—something the Lady Crusaders don’t want against top teams. Grace whittled the lead down to 19-15 midway through the quarter, but then the Lady Kings sped things up in the last two minutes and scored the last seven points of the first half for their biggest lead of the game, 26-15.
“Those two guards of theirs, 1 and 5 (Bethel Ekperigha and Gool) are lightning quick,” said Revelle. “They make everything go. They are aggressive and play deny defense, and we were playing into that.”
Halftime saw adjustments from the Lady Crusaders, who became more aggressive at both ends. They actually held Victory without a point until the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, but a basket from Gool still had them up 28-19 and Grace struggling to make shots even when it got good looks.
“We had to be more aggressive,” said Revelle. “We adjusted our defense and started getting some traps, which made them throw the ball away. For a while there, they only scored one basket, and that was some junk stuff.
“What I’m proud of is that we put the frustrations aside, dug down deep, and believed in what we do.”
At the four-minute mark, Strong drew a triple-team and got the ball to Lieckfeld, who nailed a 3-pointer from the corner. Strong took over down the stretch of the third, scoring three straight baskets to make it 30-28 before Victory ended the period with a baseline jumper by Valeria Batista.
The first two and a half minutes of the fourth saw Strong and Batista trade baskets twice. Then Strong scored again with 4:46 left, and the Lady Crusaders got a takeaway. Lieckfeld was fouled going to the basket and made her free throws to tie the game at 36.
Campbell and Whitley were the only other two Grace players to score, each getting five points. Gool led Victory with 15. Batista added 10 and Ekperigha eight.
Rounding out the roster of the state champs were Janina Herisch, Ameya Brown, Kayden Michael, McKensie Boyte, Cidney Revelle, Toni Hughes and Anna Strickland. Brown was the only one to get into the final game, but all contributed to the team’s success in some way.
“We laughed together, we cried together, we battled together, (and) we won together,” said Coach Revelle.
The Lady Crusaders will return four starters next season, when the team will compete at the 2A level. Considering that the team handily beat Final Four teams in both the NCISAA 2A and 4A levels, as well as downing a 4A public school state quarterfinalist in its hometown, Grace is confident of its chances next season.
By JOHN CATE JCATE@SANFORDHERALD.COM 3 hrs ago
Since the start of the season back in November, few teams in North Carolina had displayed either the talent, or the poise, of the Grace Christian Lady Crusaders.
But it seemed at halftime of Saturday’s NCISAA 1A women’s basketball state championship game that Grace might be cracking under the pressure.
Starting a lineup with two freshmen and two sophomores, and ranked No. 1 in the state nearly all season anyway, the Lady Crusaders lost just once all season, but were staring at the prospects of a second at halftime Saturday in Kornegay Arena at the University of Mount Olive. Two-time defending state champion Victory Christian Center had ended the first half on a 7-0 run and held a commanding 26-15 lead at the break.
Making matters worse, the Lady Crusaders had made a bunch of mistakes, they knew it, and they were mad at each other.
“We were getting some splintering on the team at halftime,” said Grace head coach Chad Revelle. “I asked them, ‘are we going to do this together, or are we going to point fingers?’ I told them we were walking together, and we’d been here before. We were down at the Durham Classic (to Hillside) and we did it. The biggest fix was just us coming together, and not getting rattled and pointing fingers.”
It took Revelle and his assistant coaches, wife Caydee and Danny Strong, a few minutes to calm everyone down. Mistakes can be corrected and Grace knew it could come back against Victory—they’d come back from seven down on Feb. 3 to beat them. Then, they had just a few minutes. Now they had an entire half.
“We had to settle down,” said Revelle. “The first half was chaotic. We let them speed us up, which we knew was going to happen, and we got rattled.”
The Lady Kings didn’t make it easy, but a withering defensive effort brought the Lady Crusaders back. They didn’t lead until less than four minutes remained, but Grace Christian ended its 1A school era as a champion, with a 46-40 victory.
The Lady Crusaders (29-1) took command with some outstanding play from their lone senior in the lineup, Lara Lieckfeld. She made three of four free throws in a 30-second span midway through the fourth quarter, tying the game and then giving Grace its first lead at 37-36 with 3:41 remaining. Victory’s Deborah Orianegbena gave her team the lead back with a basket at the other end, but Lieckfeld wasn’t done.
In the third quarter, she’d knocked down a key 3-point basket in the early part of the Lady Crusaders’ comeback. Victory, which was double- and triple-teaming Sarah Strong in the middle all evening, basically ignored Lieckfeld, who positioned herself along the baseline. With exactly three minutes left, she brought down the rain again. Left open in the right corner, she took a pass and let fly from behind the arc. The ball hit nothing but net and set off pandemonium among the hundreds of Crusader fans behind her. Grace had the lead again, 40-38. It was the final lead change of the game.
Lieckfeld had been the star for Grace last season, averaging over 18 points per game, but had set any ego aside for the good of the team when the newcomers arrived this season. The last second half of her career at Grace may have been her finest.
“They were centered on Sarah so much that I told them to spread it around the baseline, and Lara was wide open,” Revelle said. “I told her on the bus this morning that (Victory) was going to forget about her sometimes. At halftime, I told her she wasn’t being as strong as she could be. She stepped up like a senior in the second half.”
Lieckfeld had brandished the dagger, but Strong had done the heavy lifting in the comeback. Grace got a stop at the other end and then the 6’2” Division I prospect got inside, missed a shot, got her own rebound and scored. Victory tried to race downcourt and beat the defense, but Strong got back and blocked a close-in shot.
The Lady Kings’ Zaria Gool scored with 90 seconds remaining to make it 42-40, and then Grace’s young guards, Danauje Brooks, Halisi Whitley and Miyah Campbell, showed their stuff. For 53 seconds, they played keep-away while Victory fruitlessly tried to steal. Finally, with 37.6 seconds left, they fouled. Brooks missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Grace held, Campbell drew a foul, and she made her free throws with 12.6 seconds left to make the score 44-40. Strong was fouled with 3.9 to play and she made two as well for the final margin.
Strong ended the game with 24 points and 22 rebounds, with 18 of her points in the second half, many powering through multiple defenders who stretched the rule book in their efforts to stop her. Lieckfeld had 11 of her 12 points in the second half.
The Lady Crusaders entered the contest having scored 300 points in their last three games. No one was under any illusion that Victory (21-11) would be the same sort of game, but the first half was a struggle. Grace fell behind 8-2 after just two and a half minutes and was down 17-8 by the end of the opening period.
The Lady Kings kept pressing their advantage in the second quarter. Victory is unusually quick and athletic, and they wanted to push the tempo—something the Lady Crusaders don’t want against top teams. Grace whittled the lead down to 19-15 midway through the quarter, but then the Lady Kings sped things up in the last two minutes and scored the last seven points of the first half for their biggest lead of the game, 26-15.
“Those two guards of theirs, 1 and 5 (Bethel Ekperigha and Gool) are lightning quick,” said Revelle. “They make everything go. They are aggressive and play deny defense, and we were playing into that.”
Halftime saw adjustments from the Lady Crusaders, who became more aggressive at both ends. They actually held Victory without a point until the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, but a basket from Gool still had them up 28-19 and Grace struggling to make shots even when it got good looks.
“We had to be more aggressive,” said Revelle. “We adjusted our defense and started getting some traps, which made them throw the ball away. For a while there, they only scored one basket, and that was some junk stuff.
“What I’m proud of is that we put the frustrations aside, dug down deep, and believed in what we do.”
At the four-minute mark, Strong drew a triple-team and got the ball to Lieckfeld, who nailed a 3-pointer from the corner. Strong took over down the stretch of the third, scoring three straight baskets to make it 30-28 before Victory ended the period with a baseline jumper by Valeria Batista.
The first two and a half minutes of the fourth saw Strong and Batista trade baskets twice. Then Strong scored again with 4:46 left, and the Lady Crusaders got a takeaway. Lieckfeld was fouled going to the basket and made her free throws to tie the game at 36.
Campbell and Whitley were the only other two Grace players to score, each getting five points. Gool led Victory with 15. Batista added 10 and Ekperigha eight.
Rounding out the roster of the state champs were Janina Herisch, Ameya Brown, Kayden Michael, McKensie Boyte, Cidney Revelle, Toni Hughes and Anna Strickland. Brown was the only one to get into the final game, but all contributed to the team’s success in some way.
“We laughed together, we cried together, we battled together, (and) we won together,” said Coach Revelle.
The Lady Crusaders will return four starters next season, when the team will compete at the 2A level. Considering that the team handily beat Final Four teams in both the NCISAA 2A and 4A levels, as well as downing a 4A public school state quarterfinalist in its hometown, Grace is confident of its chances next season.
