BY BRIAN HAMILTON
KNOXVILLE – The King’s Academy swept Grace Christian in both regular season meetings and throughout most of the game, it looked as if the Lady Lions were going to take a third game from the Lady Rams, but Grace Christian hit big shots in the fourth quarter, while TKA went cold for much of the period, falling in the district semifinals by a score of 54-51.
“We just had some mental letdowns and they hit some big threes and we’ve got to respond,” TKA head coach Dante Turnipseed said after the game. “We say that basketball is a game of runs and they hit a run at the right time, and we didn’t respond well to that run.”
The run that was most crippling to the Lady Lions was a 14-0 Grace run that started at the end of the third quarter and spanned through the early fourth quarter, taking TKA from a 42-34 lead to a 48-42 deficit.
TKA’s Skylar Walden (14) looks for room against the Grace defense, while Bella Bradley defends. Photo by Brian Hamilton
“I think we got overconfident and thought the game was over and they kept fighting,” Turnipseed said. “We’ve got to keep our foot on their neck, keep our foot on the gas, and keep going, but they hit some big shots and I knew that was going to happen, they’ve got good players. We’ve just got to learn to deal with that kind of stuff.”
If you were a fan of 1990s NCAA tournament basketball, you saw a buzzer beater that resembled UCLA’s Tyus Edney’s coast-to-coast drive to the basket with 4.8 seconds remaining to defeat Missouri in 1995 to end the first half, and you also saw a situation that was strikingly similar to that of Michigan’s Chris Webber, who called timeout while trailing late in the national championship when the Wolverines had no timeouts left.
Nonetheless, this game was a barn burner, and if there were an ESPN Classic equivalent for NFHS basketball, this would be dubbed as an instant classic.
The game started out sloppy, with both teams trading misses and turnovers throughout the first three-plus minutes. Grace Christian’s Logan Connatser hit a three-pointer with 4:27 left in the first quarter to put the Lady Rams in front 3-0.
Both teams found a pulse and got their blood flowing after Connaster’s layup, however, as Kyle Young scored a layup, followed by a Skylar Walden three to put TKA in front 5-3 with just under four minutes left in the quarter.
Nya Burns answered the 5-0 TKA spurt with a layup to tie the game at 5-5 on the next Grace possession. The Lady Rams would retake the lead when 6-foot-6 Naomi Tchanga made a layup and was fouled. The free throw attempt was unsuccessful, but gave Grace Christian a 9-7 lead with under two minutes remaining in the quarter.
Walden would answer with a three-pointer with 48 seconds left to put TKA back in front 10-9. The junior standout would drain another highly contested three through contact at the first quarter buzzer, but no whistle was blown, and the Lady Lions took a 13-9 lead into the second quarter.
A layup by Walden to open the second quarter put TKA ahead 15-9, but Grace’s Abby Roberts answered with a triple to pull the Lady Rams back to within 15-12. A baseline jumper by Emily Atchley would stretch the lead back to 17-12 with just over six minuted left in the quarter.
The King’s Academy began to build a sizable lead midway through the second quarter, as a jumper by Jenny Bitounou, followed by a Walden floater, put the Lady Lions in front 23-14. A jumper by Roberts trimmed the TKA lead to 23-16, but a pair of free throws by Jade Dabrowski pushed the lead back to 25-16 with 3:24 to go.
Kyle Young attempts a three-pointer during the second quarter, while Grace Christian’s Abby Roberts (13) contests. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Grace Christian then went on a 9-0 run, fueled by a three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Connatser, tying the game at 25-25 with just over one minute left in the half.
Walden sank two free throws to put TKA back in front 27-25 and it looked like Grace Christian would take the final shot of the half. Instead, Grace botched the final shot attempt and Walden grabbed the rebound with just over five seconds left. While it looked like she would pull up somewhere between half court and the three-point line, Walden, using warped speed, pushed the ball all the way to the paint and made a contested layup at the buzzer, giving the Lady Lions a 29-25 lead at the intermission.
Grace came out firing in the third quarter, however, as Nya Burns nailed a three to pull the Lady Rams to within 29-28.
A rebound and layup by Olivia Loveday put TKA in front 32-29, and Walden drained a three on the next possession to make the score 35-29, as it seemed like the Lady Lions might begin to pull away again.
Roberts ended the 6-1 TKA run with a layup to pull Grace to within 35-31 midway through the third quarter. Connatser then banked a three-pointer to cut the Lady Rams’ deficit to 35-34 with 3:15 left in the period.
Layups by Walden and Bitounou stretched the TKA lead back to 39-34 and then Loveday drained a triple from the left wing for a 42-34 lead.
Just as before, it looked like the Lady Lions were going to begin to pull away.
Nya Burns answered immediately with a clutch three-pointer to make the score 42-37. Bella Bradley then hit a layup over the outstretched arms of 6-4 Jenny Bitounou to trim the deficit to 42-39 with 21 seconds left and the third quarter ended with the Lady Lions clinging to a three-point lead.
Connatser continued her hot shooting to open the fourth quarter, draining a three to even things up at 42-42. Another three by Burns would put Grace ahead 45-42, giving the Lady Rams their first lead since 9-7 in the first quarter.
Burns would drain another three on the next possession, putting Grace in front 48-42 and forcing Turnipseed to call timeout — one that might have proved to be costly down the stretch.
Walden sank two free throws on the next possession to stop the bleeding and end a 14-0 run, dating back to the end of the third quarter, and pulling TKA to within 48-44 with just under five minutes remaining.
Both teams battled to a stalemate for the next three minutes, as neither team was able to put the ball in the basket. TKA had to begin fouling with just over one minute remaining and intentionally fouled Bradley, who missed both free throw attempts.
Walden missed a three-pointer on the other end, but Bitounou grabbed the rebound and put it back to trim the deficit to 48-46 with 32 seconds remaining.
Burns was fouled on the next inbounds and converted both, extending the Grace lead to 50-46 with 28 seconds left. Loveday missed a three on the next trip down the court for TKA, but just as before, Bitounou again grabbed the rebound over Grace’s smaller defenders and put it up to make the score 50-48 with just 11 seconds to go.
Olivia Loveday (21) hits a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter to cut the Lady Lions’ deficit to one. Photo by Brian Hamilton
“(Jenny) stepped up and made some big (shots) and we said, ‘Hey, now we need that all game — if you can do that all game, that will help us big time,” Turnipseed said. “She had two big rebounds and two big finishes at the game, so we’re trying to keep her consistent in doing that, because we will need it.”
Bradley was fouled again on the inbounds and converted both foul shots with nine seconds remaining, but Loveday would sink a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left on the clock to cut the Lady Lions’ deficit to 52-51.
Grace’s Myra Hood was fouled before the ball was inbounded, with no time coming off the clock for TKA. Hood would miss the first free throw and make the second, which didn’t seem like the best idea, but trailing 53-51, TKA’s Olivia Loveday signaled for timeout, thinking that the Lady Lions still had one and could set up a possible Christian Laettener-type play.
“I think we were confused on how many timeouts we had and Liv might have told the referee we wanted a timeout, but that didn’t change the game,” Turnipseed said. “We should have played our game the whole time. We don’t let one play dictate our game.”
Unfortunately, the timeout call resulted in an administrative technical foul and the game ended more like the 1993 Chris Webber timeout call than Christian Laettener’s ‘The Shot’ in the 1992 East Regional Final.
Burns was sent to the line with just over one second remaining and converted 1-of-2 free throws to put Grace ahead 54-51. Since the technical foul was called, the Lady Rams received the ball after the foul shots, allowing them to dribble out the clock for a three-point win.
It was a mental lapse under pressure by Loveday, but let’s be honest, the Lady Lions would never have been in that situation if it were not for her clutch three-pointer just seconds earlier to trim a four-point deficit to one — a situation where the team almost always looks for Walden to deliver.
“It was a huge shot — a big, mature shot for her to take at the end of the game — and she made it, so that’s the positive to look forward to,” Turnipseed said. “It shows, ‘Hey, you’re able to take the big shot and we don’t have to put everything on Skylar (Walden),’ so it was big-time for her.”
TKA’s Skylar Walden led all scorers with 21 points, while Nya Burns and Logan Connatser led Grace Christian with 16 apiece.
Olivia Loveday and Jenny Bitounou each finished with 11 points for the Lady Lions, while Abby Roberts added 10 for the Lady Rams.
Grace Christian (24-8) will face CAK (23-4) in the district championship at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Grace Christian. The Lady Rams defeated CAK last Saturday by a score of 43-34.
The King’s Academy (22-8) will face Concord Christian (16-12) in the district consolation game at 2:30 on Saturday. Concord was defeated by CAK 67-45 on Thursday evening.
TKA finished fourth in the district tournament a season ago, but rallied to win the region championship and go on to earn a berth in the state championship game. The Lady Lions will have to go a similar route this year as well, if they are to reach their goals for the season.
“That was the whole talk in the locker room, ‘Hey, you know, this sucks, but we’ve been in this spot before and we made it to the state championship. Let’s not make the route harder, but it’s okay,'” said Turnipseed. “It sucks to lose these kind of games, but it’s not over with yet.”