Girls Basketball Takes Home First Program State Title
As seen in the Washington Post by Michael Errigo:
For a long, long time, Paul VI dominated the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division I girls’ basketball bracket. Year after year, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference powerhouse would wrap up its conference season and then spend a week pummeling VISAA opponents en route to a state title. Last year’s championship was the 16th in a row for the Panthers.
For a long, long time, Paul VI dominated the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division I girls’ basketball bracket. Year after year, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference powerhouse would wrap up its conference season and then spend a week pummeling VISAA opponents en route to a state title. Last year’s championship was the 16th in a row for the Panthers.
But this winter, a serious challenger emerged. Bishop Ireton entered the VISAA tournament after a breakout campaign in the WCAC. And on Saturday afternoon at Benedictine College Prep in Richmond, the Cardinals capped their uplifting season with an achievement to remember.
Ireton ended Paul VI’s reign of state tournament dominance with a 56-52 win in the VISAA Division I title game. The victory secured the first state title in program history.
“We really didn’t talk about their streak at all before this game. We wanted to focus on us,” Cardinals Coach Kesha Walton said. “We wanted to play our best basketball and let everything else take care of itself.”
The Panthers (19-15) and Cardinals (24-9) earned the top two seeds in the bracket and played their VISAA quarterfinals three days after getting bounced from the WCAC tournament in the semifinals. In Saturday’s final, the teams looked plenty familiar and well matched, trading baskets for much of the first half. The Panthers led by one at halftime and held that slim advantage after the third quarter.
The Cardinals made their move midway through the fourth, tying the score at 46 and then pulling ahead on a 6-0 solo run by junior forward Nyla Brooks. They would never trail again.
“I had been focused on defense and rebounding to that point,” Brooks said. “But I knew that fourth quarter was crucial, and I wanted to do whatever I could to help us close out the game.”
Brooks led the Cardinals with 17 points, followed by guards Amirah Anderson and Saniyah King with 14 apiece.
“It was our last game together, no matter what,” Brooks said. “We prepared really well and just enjoyed playing together.”
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