GENOA – When does 76 seconds feel like an eternity? How about when you’re your team’s leading scorer and foul out with 1:16 remaining on the clock in a sectional championship game?
Jazmin Bulger and Brooke Baptista hug following Ross sectional win over Springfield.
Not knowing if she was playing her final game or not, Ross senior Jazmin Bulger made her way toward the bench Saturday afternoon with her team clinging to a four-point lead over Springfield.
Springfield made on of the two ensuing free throws, trimming the Lady Giant lead to one possession. Ross found its way to the free throw line but missed three-straight times to grow its lead. Finally, with 19.7 seconds to go, Brooke Baptista sank a foul shot to give Ross some room to breathe, then Braelyn Horn added another in the final seconds to propel the Lady Giants to a 53-48 victory and the right to cut down the net.
“It felt great. I always wanted to do it,” Bulger said. “We’ve been talking for about two weeks now how we always wanted to do this. It felt really good.”
The win gives Ross its first sectional championship in five years and the second in head coach Juan Vela’s nine-year tenure.
“I’ve always said this, ‘Basketball is messy and unpredictable,’” Vela said. “By having our leading scorer out for the game (in the final minute), most teams would back down and say it’s over. Our girls stepped up.
“They know, just because she’s our leading scorer, she’s not our whole team,” he added. “I think they know it takes a team to win and the five that are on the court are the ones that need to get it done. They understand that and it’s something we’ve stressed all year.”
Ross players group hug following their sectional win over Springfield.
After the first quarter saw the lead change hands eight times, Ross trailed Springfield by three with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter. A 3-pointer by Brooke Baptista tied the game and she followed with a mid-range turnaround jumper just 30 seconds later to take the lead. With under a minute to go, Bulger grabbed a defensive rebound and took it end-to-end for a fast-break layup.
Olivia Baptista then closed the quarter with a buzzer-beating jumper from the corner, propelling the Lady Giants into the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run for a 38-34 lead.
Early in the final period, however, Bulger picked up her fourth personal foul and spent the next couple minutes on the bench. With her out of the game, Ross’ offense slowed and its lead, which had reached as many as five points shrank down to one before Bulger checked back into the game.
With Bulger in, Ross found offense from its defense. Olivia Baptista stole the ball and sprang Bulger for a fast-break layup. Just 15 seconds later, Bulger scored again, this time taking advantage of her own steal for the bucket.
Head coach Juan Vela hops up the net following his teams sectional win over Springfield.
Following a Ross timeout, Bulger found Ahlia Simms in the post who made a nice move to get to the hoop to put Ross ahead 49-44 with 2:20 to go. Following a Springfield 3-pointer to cut the lead down to two, Bulger and Horn combined on a nice passing play to set up Simms once again in the post for a 51-47 lead, there the game stood when Bulger fouled out.
“It was very devastating, knowing I had to come out,” said Bulger, who finished with 16 points. “I felt like I was a spark plug this game, I was excited the whole game and I got those steals and got the team going again.
“After I got that fifth one and was like, ‘Keep going, don’t bring it down.’ I talked to Braelyn she got up she got that block and she made that free throw. She brought the intensity too.”
With Bulger no longer in the game, the Lady Giants knew they had to buckle down defensively to advance to Wednesday night’s district semifinal at Lake High School.
“I looked at my teammates and I said, ‘We have to play how we play,’” Horn said. “We practice scenarios like this all the time, ‘What if Jazmin’s not in’? Liv and Brooke really stepped up tonight.”
A shooter’s gotta shoot
Brooke Baptista cuts down a piece of the net following Ross’ sectional win over Springfield.
Brooke Baptista was not going to stop shooting. It didn’t matter what her shooting percentage was or if the last shot or two she took did not go in. Make it or miss it, she is a shooter.
While the notion of a freshman capable of shooting well enough to garner a varsity role is far from unheard of, it’s rare to see a player so young with a limitless supply of confidence.
“She never stopped shooting,” Vela said. “That’s something you can’t practice, the feeling, the emotion, the score on the scoreboard. As a freshman, I thought she handled it very well. We told her keep shooting. If you’re open, let it fly.”
No, she did not hit all the shots she would have liked – nor all the shots she thought she should have. But when those shots refused to fall, she did not shrink from the moment. She did not begin to doubt herself nor look to pass when she was open for a shot. She kept firing.
Baptista finished the night with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including a 3-12 mark from 3-point range. But each of her baskets came at crucial times, with four points or less separating the teams on the scoreboard.
“I feel like I have to keep confident,” Baptista said. “I think I’m a good shooter and I need to keep doing my part for the team to get the win. I kept thinking to myself, ‘I’ll get the next one.’”
And so, when Bulger left the game for the final time with 76 seconds to play, the freshman became the team’s natural go-to person. She grabbed defensive rebounds and controlled the ball. She was the one marching to the free throw line with a chance to ice the game.
Ross head coach Juan Vela poses for photos with his seniors. Top row, left to right, Ashley Dodson, Braelyn Horn, Ahlia Simms and Laura Szymanowski. Bottom row, left to right, Jazmin Bulger and Bre Nason.
She missed. And missed again. She missed a third time.
But a shooter’s got to shoot.
Not dwelling on her past misses, Baptista calmly took her shot with less than 20 seconds to play and put the game away.
“It feels great to put my part of it into helping (the seniors) get what they always dreamed of doing,” Baptista said. “It feels good helping them get their dream.”
Horn, a senior, like Bulger and Simms, trying to ensure her career continued for at least one more game, made sure to reinforce to Baptista she belonged in big-shot moments.
“I said, ‘Brooklyn, you play this game, you live for this game. This is your game. Get out there and do it,’” Horn said.
“She’s way ore mature than any other freshman’s ever been. Nothing affects her, she kept shooting. As team, we encourage her to keep shooting, we know it’s going to fall.”
Sectional championship
Fremont Ross 53, Springfield 48
SHS|10—16—8—14 48
FR| 11—13—14—15 53
SPRINGFIELD (48)
Armstrong 7 3-6 19; Hawkins 3 2-2 10; Gregory 1 0-0 3; S. Rose 1 0-0 3; Johnson 1 0-2 4; Harris 3 3-6 9; Clayton 0 0-2 0. Totals, 17 8-18 48.
ROSS (53)
Bulger 7 1-7 16; O. Baptista 2 1-2 6; Horn 0 2-6 2; Simms 3 4-4 10; B. Baptista 5 1-4 14; Sabiers 1 2-2 4; Overmyer 1 0-0 2. Totals, 19 11-25 53.
3-pointers: SHS, 6 (Armstrong 2; Hawkins 2; Gregory 1; S. Rose 1.) FR, 4 (B.Baptista 3; O. Baptista 1).