Coach Schofield and his 2019 3A-5 Far West League Champion Lady Bruin Basketball team walked onto the basketball court for their final game, win or lose. After losing on Thursday afternoon, the Lady Bruins were placed in the consolation round in a win and move on…Lose and go home situation. The Lady Bruins took that situation seriously and found themselves in a situation where a win could give them 4th in the state in their 3A-5 Far West League.
For seniors, knowing this would be their last game in a Lady Bruin uniform, it was with high anxiety both teams took their positions for the tip. After the tip it took a few trips up and down the court for them to settle in and get into their gameplans.
The Lady Bruins jumped out early and ran out to an eight point lead before the Lady Warriors of Warrenton got on the board. Lexi Schofield picked up where she left off in previous games hitting two 3 pointers setting the example for Sierra Fitzhugh who got started early also with a bucket and Chloe McCrae showed the Lady Warriors who was going to control the pain. But the Lady Warriors were not going to be intimidated and roared back to tie the game at 12–12 before the end of the first period.
In the second period, in what seemed to be the consensus way to slow the Lady Bruins by all the teams they faced, the Lady Warriors chose to foul the Lady Bruins in order to force them to hit free throws, and not allow them to build confidence or momentum from their shooting. The Lady Bruins only basket in the period came from a determined Sierra Fitzhugh. Fitzhugh and Avana Pettus also got to the line each going a perfect 2 for 2 and scoring all 6 of the Lady Bruins points in the period as the Lady Bruin defense allowed Warrenton only 8 points in the period and went into the halftime break trailing 18-20.
Trailing by 2 points going into the third period of play, you could feel the tension and anxiety of the moment and Coach Schofield broke out the defensive press to get his team to forget the about the anxiety and increase the pressure on the Lady Warriors. Sierra Fitzhugh hit a bucket and senior center Chloe McCrae fought in the paint for 2 points off a basket and got to the line four times hitting once. But it was two players who will be big in the Lady Bruin future that hit two big shots in the period when sophomore Lexee Murray and sophomore Shelby Jirsa both hit big time 3’s that kept the Lady Bruins close as Warrenton hit for 13 points in the third period.
As the fourth and final period of the year began, the Lady Bruins trailed by 4 points, 29-33 and needed to first eliminate a lead before they had a chance to take the win. Everything on the line and the Lady Bruins rose up and were not to be denied with some shutdown defense and some very timely shooting. Junior Sidney Alexander found her range after a quiet first three periods hitting a bucket and a 3 pointer for 5 points, Schofield hit a bucket and a free throw, Mickey Fulton finally got to the line and hit 1 of 2, Lexee Murray went 2 for 2 from the line and sophomore Sierra Fitzhugh, the only Lady Bruin to score in all four periods also led all Lady Bruin scorers with 11 points hit a bigtime 3 pointer late in the game that gave the Lady Bruins the lead with just over a minute left. The Lady Warriors were held to just 7 points in the final period in game that was close the entire way. The Lady Bruins ultimately won the final period, closing a 4 point deficit and then stretching a 5 point lead of their own as the clock ran out.
After the dirt settled, not only did Coach Schofield and his 2019 3A-5 Far West League Champion Lady Bruin win a barn burner of a game but they also came home with Lexi Schofield’s all tournament second team award, while Coach Schofield, Assistant Coaches Kara Miller and Kyla Siri and the entire 4th place State 2019 3A-5 Far West League Champion Lady Bruin were awarded the tournament sportsmanship award.
Congratulations to the entire team, staff and Coach Schofield on a fantastic season.
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