Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Carroll denied fourth straight chance at Austin

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Sunday, February 25, 2001
Carroll denied fourth straight chance at Austin

By Matt Young
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

Carroll’s Sabrina Mitchell walks away from a celebrating Buda Hayes team after the Lady Tigers lost to the Rebels, 52-50 in triple overtime Saturday.

SAN ANTONIO - It took three overtimes, but someone finally found a way to keep Carroll out of the state tournament.
   After making a nice pass to set up a basket to send the game to overtime, a basket to send the game to double overtime and scoring all four Carroll points in double overtime, Mitchell finally ran out of miracles in the third extra period.
   Mitchell's three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the back of the rim giving Buda Hays a thrilling 52-50 triple-overtime win in the Region IV-5A finals Saturday at the UTSA Convocation Center. The Rebels' win denied Carroll (34-4) a fourth straight trip to the state tournament.
   The turning point came when Hays point guard Lauren Guerrero snagged her eighth steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to put Hays up 52-50 with 1:58 left in the third overtime. Down by two, Carroll decided to hold for the final shot. After running down most of the time, the Tigers called timeout to set up a final play with eight seconds remaining.
   Carroll inbounded the ball to Mitchell, who scored a game-high 24 points, at the top of the key where she found three Hays defenders swarming her. Unable to shake free, Mitchell was forced to throw up a 22-foot shot that sailed long.
   "That wasn't the shot we were looking for, but they were all over me when I got the ball," Mitchell said. "The play was for me to come off some picks and penetrate for a layup, but that didn't happen."
   There was no doubt Mitchell would get the final shot, which allowed Hays coach Donny McDonald to set up a defense specifically designed for Mitchell.
   "They had run the same play in the overtime and in double overtime, so we knew what was going to happen," McDonald said. "I have to give credit to (Hays forward) Jennifer Capps, because in our huddle during the timeout, she stepped up and said she would stop Mitchell no matter what it took. Sure enough, she fought through every last screen Carroll tried to set and got her big old hand up in that girl's face and made it a very tough shot."
   Mitchell had hit several tough shots and made several clutch plays all game.
   With Carroll trailing, 40-38, and 20 seconds left in regulation, Carroll got the ball to Mitchell and let her go to work. Mitchell penetrated and drew three Hays defenders in the paint, so she pitched the ball to a wide-open Marquita Lewis, who banked in the easy shot to send the game to overtime.
   Once again, Carroll found itself trailing by two with 29 seconds left in overtime. Again, Mitchell drove to the hole drawing all kinds of defenders, but this time Mitchell took it herself, banking in a driving layup high off the glass to send the game to double overtime.
   In the second overtime, Carroll had the ball with 3:11 left and the game tied. It appeared the Tigers would hold for the final shot, milking more than two minutes off the clock, but Mitchell found a seam and drove in for the go-ahead layup with 25 seconds left. That proved to be too much time as Hays' Helen Breyfogle rebounded a Marka Pinkert miss and put it back in to tie the score at the end of double overtime.
   Despite scoring eight of her team's 10 points in the three overtimes, Mitchell's career is finished before she could make her fourth trip to the state tournament.
   "It's different not ending the season at state, but we can't be disappointed in our season," Mitchell said. "We have to look at it like this: We did everything we could possibly do, but they still won. You can't be upset when you know you played as hard as you could."

   Carroll 13 9 8 10 4 4 2-50
   Buda Hays 10 9 12 9 4 4 4-52
   Carroll - Sabrina Mitchell 24, Ashley Bonilla 8, Marquita Lewis 7, Ashley Powell 6, Mahogany Daniel 5.
   Buda Hays - Marka Pinkert 20, Jennifer Capps 10, Helen Breyfogle 8, Lauren Guerrero 7, Alisha Schuman 4, Emily Klaerner 3. 3-point goals - Carroll, Bonilla 2, Mitchell 2; Buda Hays, Emily Klaerner 1.
   Records - Carroll 34-4, Buda Hays 29-7.


Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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