“It was rockin’ awesome,” the 14-year-old said, after scoring 10 points and playing a strong defensive role in the Vikings 26-24 home-court triumph over the second-seeded St. Ignatius Falcons on Monday afternoon.
“I’m so happy. We’ve been undefeated for the entire season. We’ve been really hoping to finish that way. We had a really big scare with Churchill in the semifinal. We were down eight points at the beginning of the second half. We were absolutely terrified that we weren’t going to be able to rebound tonight.”
It wasn’t looking good for the Vikings, who rolled over the Falcons three times during the regular season, never winning by less than nine points, en route to a 15-0 campaign. They added four more wins in the postseason.
But it took a fourth quarter comeback in the championship game to secure the school’s third title in four years.
The Vikings trailed by four points after each of the first three quarters, but took over in the when it mattered most. Shannon McKitrick, who topped Hammarskjold with 12 points, started the rally with a bucket that pulled the Vikings to within a pair, at 20-18. Foster then stole the ball and drove to the hoop to tie the game, and followed with a lay-in off a St. Ignatius turnover to give them their first lead of the ballgame.
“It was kind of intense there for awhile, but we picked it up and we did a really good job there,” said McKitrick.
The Falcons used their size up the middle to stifle the normally potent Hammarskjold offense. Led by Jessica Maki, whose 14 points topped all scorers, and Jessica Korchak, who scored a key basket that pushed the Falcons lead to eight late in the third, St. Ignatius took a 6-2 lead after the opening eight minutes.
The Vikings pulled to within two on a couple of occasions, but Maki stretched it to six, netting her 10th point of the half before the Vikings cut the lead to four once again.
They maintained it in the third, causing some worry on the Vikings bench – but not too much.
Hammarskjold coach Lisa MacLeod said her team isn’t used to trailing, but once they hit their stride, there was no stopping them.
“I guess they just put it together in that last quarter. I think defence is what really won the game for us today. Our offence wasn’t our typical offence today. We were having a tough time putting the ball in the net, but defensively we just had to step up and get some turnovers.”
Once they secured the lead, with no shot clock in effect, the Vikings played an extended game of keep-away, forcing the Falcons to foul, eventually sending McKitrick to the line with what proved to be the winning free throws.
