Clutch Free Throws Lift the Quakers to a Victory at Rye
Horace Greeley senior Jackie Brett had only made six of her 10 earlier free throws last Thursday evening when she stepped to the line again with just 4.2 seconds remaining and the Quakers’ contest at Rye hanging in the balance.
last Thursday’s win at Rye. Photo by Andy Jacobs
Still, there wasn’t anyone else the Quakers would rather have had standing there to take the two biggest shots of the night.
“At that point,” Greeley coach John Alkalay would say later, “I thought it was money. I thought she was gonna hit ’em.”
Sure enough, the Quakers’ star guard calmly sank both of her foul shots, providing the decisive margin in a 52-50 victory over a Garnet team that once led by 14 points early in the second quarter. Brett finished with a game-high 22 points, 10 of them coming in the third quarter when the Quakers outscored Rye 21-9 to turn a nine-point halftime deficit into a three-point advantage heading to the final period.
“I was worried at halftime, honestly,” said Alkalay. “They (the Garnets) were playing really well. Our defense wasn’t aggressive as we usually are and they took a big lead into halftime.”
The Garnets used an early 10-0 spurt to take command in the opening quarter. Despite eight points by the Quakers’ Sam Srinivasan, Rye built an 18-10 cushion after the first eight minutes. When Alanna Morque connected on a 20-footer midway through the second quarter, the Garnet lead increased to 26-12.
But the Quakers then responded with an 8-0 run of their own, sparked by two baskets from Brett and capped by a 3-pointer from Srinivasan, who finished the game with 17 points. The first half ended with Rye in front by a 30-21 margin.
“At the half, we told the kids, ‘If you continue to play passively, they’re gonna get good shots and they’ll hit ’em and get more confident,'” said Alkalay. “So we stepped up the aggressiveness in the second half. I thought the aggressive defense helped us a lot because they started missing. I think they got a little tired and then we were able to get on a run, which is what we needed.”
The Quakers, forced to play much of the evening without freshman forward Lauren Brown, who was whistled for three first-half fouls and eventually fouled out, still found themselves trailing by 10 points after a bucket by Rachel Egan nearly halfway through the third quarter. But then Srinivasan drove the lane for a basket that ignited a 16-0 Greeley blitz.
Brett, who scored her 1000th career point in a home win over the Garnets just three weeks earlier, had 10 of the points for the Quakers during the huge surge, collecting four buckets with her ability to get into the paint. The last two hoops came 20 seconds apart in the final half minute of the quarter, enabling Greeley to open up a 42-36 edge. The reeling Garnets managed to slice their deficit in half, though, when Maddie Eck tossed in a shot from half court just before the buzzer sounded to end the period.
“We were struggling first half,” Alkalay said. “But once we got some stops, some steals, some rebounds, then we got a lot of fastbreak points. Those were huge. That’s when we’re at our best. We’re playing aggressive man D and then we get out on the run and push the pace.”
The fourth quarter began with the Quakers getting an 18-foot jumper from Maura Grant, followed by a Srinivasan 3-pointer from right of the key. Suddenly the lead was up to eight points, but Rye was hardly finished. Eck’s trey with 90 seconds to go following three Garnet offensive rebounds on one possession narrowed the Greeley advantage to 50-45.
With 38 seconds remaining, Egan was fouled while shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. She made all three free throws, moving Rye to within two points. When the Quakers’ Olivia Kerester misfired on a corner jumper just 20 seconds later instead of taking some more time off the clock, Rye was quick to capitalize. Egan soon went to her left hand on a drive and banked in the tying basket with 10.1 seconds to go.
“Yeah, we were looking to kill another 20, 25 seconds of clock and hopefully draw a foul so we get to the line as well,” said Alkalay of the possession when the Quakers shot too early while trying to protect their two-point lead. “But it happens. Girls make mistakes. It’s no big deal.”
It was no big deal because Brett answered Egan’s tying basket by racing down the court and rising up for a potential game-winning jumper just beyond the foul line. Her shot missed, but a whistle blew and she was awarded two free throws with four seconds remaining. After Brett made her clutch foul shots, the Garnets’ last hope disappeared as Eck’s long pass into the left corner deflected off Morque’s fingertips as time expired.
“I’ve seen a lot of game-winners at the buzzer,” said a relieved Alkalay, “and I didn’t want one against us.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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