Girls hoops: Eastside Catholic delivers buzzer beater over Lakeside
The Eastside Catholic girls basketball team narrowly won 49-47 against the Lakeside Lions Thursday, advancing them to the district championship game.
The first quarter started with hard defense and turnovers forced by the Crusaders, as they got out to an 11-2 run, highlighted by a deep three from Sophie Lugolobi and a few buckets from Amy Nduka and Raquel Dunnam. Lakeside responded quickly, as Phoebe Porter got them on the board three minutes into the game and Anvi Bhatia led a 10-0 run, scoring eight of those points to make it 12-11. A three from Kaliya Woodard extended the Lions’ lead to 15-11, but a layup from the Crusaders’ Nduka with 18 seconds left cut the score to 15-13 Lakeside heading into the second quarter.
The game remained close with multiple lead changes through the second quarter. Nduka started the scoring with a three to put the Crusaders up 16-15. Lakeside also put up points of their own as Lili Brown hit a three and Bhatia added a mid-range jumper to give the Lions a 20-18 lead. The Crusaders fired back swiftly, as Nduka made another layup and Sa’Fine Sampson hit a three to give Eastside Catholic a 23-20 lead. Nduka added two more free throws to bring her first half total to 15 points, but another three from Lakeside’s Brown and a layup from Porter off of a Bhatia assist would tie the game at 25-25 heading into halftime.
After the break, both teams aimed to break the game open, but the contest remained tight. The Crusaders kicked off the second half with a 7-0 run highlighted by buckets from Sampson and Nduka, along with a deep three from Dunnam to make it 32-25. The Lions instantly replied with three free throws from Bhatia and a three from Woodard, but Tavia Carter hit a jumper for the Crusaders to make the score 35-31. Talia Cermak got on the board for Eastside Catholic with a difficult layup, but buckets from Lakeside’s Bhatia and Porter cut the lead to two at 37-35. A last second free throw from Bhatia closed the gap, trimming the Crusaders’ lead to one at 37-36 at the end of the third quarter.
It remained anybody’s game, as Nduka initiated the fourth quarter scoring with another set of free throws to extend the Crusaders’ lead to three. Brown struck back with a hard and-1 bucket to tie the game at 39-39. The rest of the quarter stayed back and forth, as both teams continued to exchange buckets. Nduka and Brown continued to dominate on the offensive end, spearheading their respective teams’ attacks. A final layup from Sampson with three seconds left in the game was the overall difference maker that gave the Crusaders the 49-47 win.
The Eastside Catholic Crusaders will play the Bellevue Wolverines in the District 2 Championship at Bellevue College on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8:15 p.m.
