BY CLIFF SMELLEY
A double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter on the road isn’t an ideal situation, but the Bradford High School girls basketball team didn’t panic, rallying to defeat number-one seed Newberry 64-62 to win the District 3-3A tournament championship on Feb. 6.
“It was just one possession at a time,” BHS Head Coach Sampson Jackson said. “We talked about winning segments of the game. They trusted each other and got it done.”
Ar’Nayshia Griffin certainly got it done for the second seed Tornadoes, scoring 14 of her team-high 36 points in the fourth quarter, while teammate Riley Shuford had the basket that proved to be the eventual difference.
The result was the Tornadoes’ first district title in 13 years.
“A lot of room for growth still, but I’m super proud of them for winning this,” Jackson said.
Bradford (16-9) now gets to play a Region 1 quarterfinal game on Friday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. Regional seedings and matchups have yet to be announced by the Florida High School Athletic Association.
The Tornadoes got off to an incredible start against Newberry (19-4), scoring 19 of the game’s first 21 points. Griffin got the scoring started when she grabbed a defensive rebound and dribbled the length of the court for a basket. Nyasia Lopey scored off a Griffin inbounds pass before Griffin added her second basket off a steal. Griffin was fouled on the play and made the awarded free throw. Shuford and Griffin made back-to-back three-pointers to put Bradford up 13-0.
Newberry, which missed its first six field-goal attempts, finally scored when Brandy Whitfield made two free throws at the 3:35 mark of the first quarter.
Griffin got a basket off an offensive rebound and later made two free throws to give the Tornadoes a 15-point lead. Lopey then scored off a steal to make it a 19-2 game.
“The start we got off to was unreal,” Jackson said. “We got off to a start I haven’t seen all year, but the game is runs. At some point, (the Panthers) were going to make a run. They have, arguably, one of the best players in the area.”
That player Jackson referred to was Whitfield, who would finish the game with 38 points. It was Whitfield who gave Newberry its first field goal when she made a three-point basket with 1:11 remaining in the first quarter. She added another three-pointer off a Londyn Hines steal to send the Panthers into the second quarter trailing 19-8.
Whitfield’s second three-point basket was in the midst of four consecutive turnovers by Bradford to end the first quarter. The Tornadoes then turned the ball over on their first three possessions of the second quarter. Newberry, though, was only able to turn those turnovers into five points.
Newberry got two three-pointers from Hines and one from Whitfield in narrowing the Tornadoes’ lead to two points. Griffin scored off a turnover and was fouled on the play, making the awarded free throw to put Bradford up 26-21, but the Panthers then got two free throws from Whitfield and a three-pointer from Rhianna Chiever to even the score with one minute remaining in the first half.
A Whitfield layup gave Newberry its first lead with 38 seconds left in the second quarter.
Cayson Hampton made three free throws for Bradford, while Newberry got a basket from Destiny Neal, making the halftime score 30-29 in favor of the Panthers.
The Panthers scored the first six points of the third quarter, with a Whitfield three-pointer putting them ahead 36-29. Bradford’s Ky’lee Johnson had a basket to end the Newberry run. Then, after a free throw by the Panthers’ Neal, Griffin sank a three-pointer to leave the Tornadoes trailing 37-34. Whitfield, though, answered with her own three-point basket.
Bradford got a basket each from Hampton and Lopey in trimming Newberry’s lead from eight to four. A Shuford three-pointer later made it a two-point game at 45-43.
Whitfield, who made seven three-pointers in all, sank two shots from beyond the arc in the latter stages of the third quarter to help send the Panthers into the final quarter leading 51-46.
Two consecutive steals by Whitfield led to her own score as well as a three-pointer by Jada Brown, giving Newberry a 56-46 lead early in the fourth quarter. Whitfield’s basket would be her last of the game. She was held scoreless the rest of the way until making a pair of free throws with 58 seconds to play.
It was an eight-point game when the Tornadoes went on an 11-0 run. Griffin and Lopey each scored off an offensive rebound. Griffin added another basket when she drove into the lane and spun around defender Chiever. She drew a foul on the play and made the awarded free throw to make it a 60-59 game in favor of Newberry with 1:50 to play.
After Newberry’s Neal missed two free-throw attempts, Griffin got her fifth field goal of the quarter to give the Tornadoes a 61-60 lead.
Newberry then turned the ball over, which resulted in Shuford scoring on a drive to the basket to put Bradford up by three.
Whitfield was fouled on a three-point attempt, making 2 of 3 attempts to leave the Panthers trailing by one point.
The Tornadoes were able to run out most of the remaining 54 seconds with Griffin handling the ball before Newberry finally committed a foul. Griffin made 1 of 2 free-throw attempts with nine seconds remaining for the final point of the game.
It was quite a battle that left his players exhausted, Jackson said, but he added, “They kept fighting.”
“I’m super proud of the girls,” Jackson said. “They deserve it.”
Lopey and Shuford finished with nine and eight points, respectively, while Hampton had seven. Johnson and Wynter Barrington each added two points.
Griffin led the team in rebounds with 10 and steals with six.
Lopey and Barrington had nine and eight rebounds, respectively.
