While national power Westtown School is dominating Friends Schools League girls' basketball and Friends Central is solidly in second place, some fierce battles are occurring between teams ranked a little farther down the ladder. One of these was a confrontation between big cats last Tuesday as the Tigers of Germantown Friends paid a visit to the George School Cougars.
Although George School led by five points at halftime and GFS went up by four early in the fourth quarter, this contest would come down to the wire. With just over one second remaining, Cougars freshman Kam Stokes put in a …
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While national power Westtown School is dominating Friends Schools League girls' basketball and Friends Central is solidly in second place, some fierce battles are occurring between teams ranked a little farther down the ladder. One of these was a confrontation between big cats last Tuesday as the Tigers of Germantown Friends paid a visit to the George School Cougars.
Although George School led by five points at halftime and GFS went up by four early in the fourth quarter, this contest would come down to the wire. With just over one second remaining, Cougars freshman Kam Stokes put in a short baseline jumper that would allow the hosts to prevail, 39-37. The victory lifted George School to a 6-2 record within the FSL (and 9-5 overall), while Germantown leveled off at 4-4 (16-5 overall).
George School's Stokes, who would score the last basket of the game, also scored the first, and a made free throw by Liv Vieira (a transfer from Penn Charter) gave the Cougars an early 3-0 lead before GFS junior Sarah Goldberg tied it up with a trey from the left wing.
Freshman JoJo Lintulahti, senior Alayah Campbell, and freshman Taylor Linton added regular field goals, and Linton went three-for-four from the foul line to put the Tigers up 12-9 at the end of the quarter.
The Cougars' defense stiffened, and in the second quarter, a Lintulahti lay-up in the middle of the period furnished the Tigers with their only points of the period. Meanwhile the hosts' Maya Ravindranathan scored off a steal and made four of six free throws to lead her team to a 19-14 halftime advantage.
Despite early three-pointers by Campbell and GFS senior Katie Day early in the third round, George School went on to fashion the largest lead of the evening, eight points at 28-20. Germantown recouped two points on a score in transition by Lintulahti, heading into the fourth quarter with a six-point deficit (28-22).
Freshman Samantha Sims-Pettiford of the Tigers converted an offensive rebound for the first two points of the final round, and Campbell scored a lay-up in transition. After George School turned the ball over with a traveling violation, a technical foul was called on the Cougars. When Germantown's Linton made both of the resulting free throws, the contest was tied at 28-all with 5:44 left on the clock.
Next, a 15-footer by Linton from the left edge of the foul line and a drive along the left baseline by Campbell propelled the visitors to a 32-28 lead. George School moved ahead, 33-32, with a little over three minutes left to play, then Lintulahti popped in a "three" from the top of the key and nudged GFS back in front, 35-33.
With a putback of her own shot, Cougars sophomore Zee Lowe leveled the scoreboard at 35-35 with 2:17 remaining, and with just over 90 seconds to go Germantown lost a chance to retake the lead by missing a pair of free throws.
Back on offense, George School had Vieira send up an errant three-point shot, but after GFS rebounded the miss, the Cougars had almost tied up the ball when the Tigers were forced to call a time-out to retain possession with 1:11 left.
The visitors then fell behind when George's Lowe stole the ball and passed it ahead to Ravindranathan, who made the breakaway lay-up to put the Cougars ahead 37-35 with 44 seconds on the ticker.
At the other end, Campbell was fouled on a lay-up attempt with half a minute remaining, and she put away both free throws to tie the contest once again, this time at 37-all.
Following a George School time-out with 23 seconds left, the Cougars started in the frontcourt and worked the ball around their offensive set. Finally, Lowe drove straight down the middle of the lane, encountering a Tiger defender but dishing the ball off to Stokes, who was coming in along the left baseline. Stokes popped in a baby jumper to put the final 39-37 tally on the scoreboard.
When Germantown Friends called a time-out, the officials reset the game clock to 1.1 seconds, giving the Tigers a chance to heave a hail-Mary shot that fell far short of the hoop.
Campbell led the Tigers with a total of 11 points, and Linton and Lintulahti were close behind with nine points apiece. Ravindranathan posted a game-high 16 points for the Cougars, who received 10 points from Lowe and six from Stokes.