Watched my alma mater South Central fall to Argus, two evenly matched teams, in the Culver Girls Sectional final Saturday night. It was the definition of a tough loss. South Central has one great player (forward Riley Popplewell), two very good guards (Morgan Wright and Olivia Tolmen), and a lot of modest role-players. On the second possession of the game, Wright went down with an ankle injury and was done for the night. The rest of the team stepped it up and for two quarters played about as well as they're capable. Popplewell went something like 7 for 8; Tolmen, who has a tendency to get out of control at either end of the court, stayed perfectly locked in; and SC led by 12 at the half.
Most of that lead evaporated pretty quickly in the third quarter, via a slew of Argos three-pointers, and the Dragons took their first lead with a minute-and-a-half left in the game. With 7.5 seconds on the clock, Argos was up by one point. Popplewell took the ball the length of the court, saw a clear path to the basket -- and tripped. Ball out of bounds with two seconds, game over.
As if that weren't enough, in the second quarter there was an inadvertent whistle. Play stopped and everyone looked at the referees -- who looked back and said nothing. After two seconds, Argos picked up the ball and ran in for a layup. I heard later that the ref's explanation was that you can't stop a fast break in that situation. That might be true, but there was nothing like a fast break in progress until after that whistle blew. At least four players were near the ball, which Argos was just bringing over the ten-second line.
All that said, South Central missed eight straight free throws down the stretch, any one of which would have made a difference, so there's plenty of responsibility for the loss on that side of the scorebook. Still, it was pretty heartbreaking. Riley Popplewell is good enough to probably get some looks for the All-Star Team. But she and fellow senior Morgan Wright will remember this game for a long time, for all the wrong reasons.
Most of that lead evaporated pretty quickly in the third quarter, via a slew of Argos three-pointers, and the Dragons took their first lead with a minute-and-a-half left in the game. With 7.5 seconds on the clock, Argos was up by one point. Popplewell took the ball the length of the court, saw a clear path to the basket -- and tripped. Ball out of bounds with two seconds, game over.
As if that weren't enough, in the second quarter there was an inadvertent whistle. Play stopped and everyone looked at the referees -- who looked back and said nothing. After two seconds, Argos picked up the ball and ran in for a layup. I heard later that the ref's explanation was that you can't stop a fast break in that situation. That might be true, but there was nothing like a fast break in progress until after that whistle blew. At least four players were near the ball, which Argos was just bringing over the ten-second line.
All that said, South Central missed eight straight free throws down the stretch, any one of which would have made a difference, so there's plenty of responsibility for the loss on that side of the scorebook. Still, it was pretty heartbreaking. Riley Popplewell is good enough to probably get some looks for the All-Star Team. But she and fellow senior Morgan Wright will remember this game for a long time, for all the wrong reasons.
