(Troy)
Catholic Central knocked off Columbia 64-63 to win the Class AA sectional title. The Crusaders held off multiple Columbia possessions in the closing seconds to advance to regional play later this week. The quarter scores will tell you a lot of the story of how this game went. (1st quarter: Columbia by 1, 2nd Quarter: Columbia by 1, 3rd Quarter CCHS by 2, 4th Quarter: CCHS by 1)
I said before the sectionals started in my preview article: "This (Class AA girls) is probably my favorite classification this season of all 12 boys/girls brackets." It lived up to the pre-game expectation and beyond.
Catholic Cental opened up 5 point lead in the fourth quarter after a Kristen Foglia three pointer with 3:18 left in the game. After two Alivia Landy free throws and a Kendyl Ouimette three point play the game was tied at 61 with 2:38 left. Another Ouimette runner in the paint the Blue Devils took a 63-61 lead with 2:05 remaining. Tanavia Turpin hit one of two free throws with 1:46 left in the contest to cut the Crusaders deficit to one point.
With 1:07 left in the game Kristen Foglia spotted a streaking Akarri Gaddy for a layup and Catholic Central regained the lead 64-63. We fast forward to the closing seconds after a CCHS steal and then empty free throw attempts to one last chance for Columbia with the ball. Their attempt was defended well and came up just short.
El'Dior Dobere led Catholic Central with 15 points, Tanavia Turpin and Kristen Foglia added 13 points each.
Alivia Landy scored a game high 28 points for Columbia, Kendyl Ouimette scored 20 points.
I've put together some "crunch time" highlights from the fourth quarter to show how the teams battled in the last frame and to the final whistle.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
