When the Section III Class B playoffs start next week, the Bishop Grimes girls basketball team will have plenty of reason to think it can win a championship, and plenty of opponents targeting them as the consensus favorite.
It just won’t go there with a perfect record.
After 17 consecutive victories, and on the brink of an undefeated regular season, the Cobras finally got topped, but it took a Class AA championship contender, Rome Free Academy, to do it, relying on defense and toughness to beat Grimes 48-35.
The Black Knights did not mind putting its mark on what was, at the outset, a festive occasion for Grimes. Senior guard Jordan Vaught began the night with 994 career points, determined to get the six she needed to reach 1,000.
Yet Grimes knew just what sort of opponent it was facing. RFA carried a 16-2 record, a no. 21 state Class AA ranking and had already secured the regular-season title in the tough Tri-Valley League.
More ominously for Cobras fans, the Black Knights had, on Jan. 21, had gone to Indian River and won 54-51, the only time the state Class A no. 5-ranked Warriors had lost this season. Now RFA was attempting the same feat at Grimes, and would pull it off.
Less than three minutes into the game, Vaught hit a 3-pointer, half of what she needed for 1,000. She did so amid an active, high-energy first quarter that saw Grimes take a 14-13 lead, but lose a key player, senior guard Teresa Shattuck, to an injury.
Shattuck did not return until the third quarter. Meanwhile, RFA’s attack found some success with the duo of senior Teresa Anken and 6-foot-3 junior center Tiana Pugh. Combined, Anken and Pugh had 23 of the Black Knights’ 27 first-half points.
Right before halftime, Vaught, who had missed a series of 3-point attempts, hit one to get to the 1,000-point mark. The game was stopped as the large crowd gave Vaught a standing ovation, and she received hugs from her teammates and parents on the court.
Vaught reaching the milestone should have eased the pressure on Grimes. Instead, it led to a costly drought, the Cobras going more than six minutes without a field goal until Vaught’s basket late in the third quarter.
During that time, RFA went on a 13-0 run, but did most of its damage on the defensive end. Black Knights head coach Alissa Tuthill said her team shifted the focus away from Azariah Wade toward Vaught and the other Grimes guards, refusing to give them open outside looks.
It worked in two ways. Not only were Grimes’ guards covered, they couldn’t get the ball inside to Wade, who finished with 10 points, but had just two of them in the second half.
Vaught finished with 16 points, but Grimes never got closer than 10 points (42-32) in the fourth quarter. RFA salted the game away as Anken finished with 19 points and five rebounds and Pugh had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
