Poly’s Brittany Wilson has been playing these CIF and State playoffs with her injured twin sister Ashley’s #12 jersey on her back. Last night at Ron Palmer Pavilion, the senior guard put her team on her back and scored enough for both twin sisters with a game-high 27 points as the Jackrabbits defeated Summit, 80-53, to advance to the SoCal Regional Final next Saturday.
The game was much closer than the final score reflected, but a huge fourth quarter that included a 17-2 Jackrabbit run sealed the 27-point win. “Brittany was outstanding, that’s a career game for her,” said Poly head coach Carl Buggs. “We’ve got four or five girls on this team that can score like that, but you have to feed the hot shooter.”
It’s a bit of an understatement to say Wilson was the hot shooter as she started the game 7-for-7 and netted 21 points in the first half. “We came out early and played well last game, and I want to stay consistent,” said Wilson, who also spent the night guarding the SkyHawks offensive leader and point guard, Vanessa Jackson.
Jackson and Adrianne Thomas paced the SkyHawks and kept them in the game with good shot selection and some second-chance points. Thomas had a team-high 19 points and Summit only trailed 39-28 at the half after Wilson sparked a mini run to finish the second quarter.
The teams traded fouls in the third quarter and the spread hovered around 10 points, which was okay by Buggs. “We knew we wanted to get inside, draw some fouls, and dig into their bench because they have their scorers, but they only go seven or eight deep on the bench… we felt if we could get to number nine of ten we’d have the upper hand.”
With the score 58-48 and six minutes left in regulation, it was time for all the planning and playing to pay off.
Jazzmine Shirley started the game-sealing run with two free throws followed by a steal at the other end. She found Tajanae Winston under the bucket, who got fouled and made the free throws. On the next trip down for the SkyHawks, guard Ariya Crook-Williams grabbed a rebound off a missed three pointer and turned quickly on the baseline.
“I’m always looking up,” said Crook-WIlliams. “Someone’s always more open than me.”
Spoken like a true quarterback, the junior guard pulled it back and fired a football-esque laser of a pass to a sprinting Winston. She converted the lay up, and that play seemed to break the game wide open and offer up all the open floor the Jackrabbits needed. Winston and Destiny King (13 combined points in fourth quarter) kept running the floor while Crook-Williams and Shirley kept finding them. Then when Summit tried to foul and extend the game to stay close, Poly only missed one free throw in the fourth quarter.
“This was our best free throw shooting night of the season,” said Buggs. “That’s part of it all coming together… hopefully that means we’re peaking.”
Poly will play in the SoCal Regional Final next Saturday, so stay tuned to LBPOSTsports.com this week for all the previews and features.