Late opportunities slip away, to leave Elsik wondering
As soon as Cy-falls learned of its region III final opponent, they knew a less than stellar effort wouldn’t be enough. Twice this season the Lady Eagles have defeated Elsik.
Sadalla Ellis converted a layup with 3:35 left to give Cy-Falls a 53-50 lead that would stand up for a 59-52 defeat of the Elsik Lady Rams in the Class 5A Region III Finals at the Campbell Center.
With the victory, the Golden Eagles erase memories of last season’s 54-48 semifinal loss to North Shore to earn its first trip to the state tournament.
“You work hard every day, just to have a chance to play the game and be successful to see the hard fruit of these girls have put in. Leading to the ultimate opportunity, is beyond us,” Jim Stephens Cy-Falls Coach said, who didn’t have the words to express it. We are thankful of God for his blessings to play another day.”
Elsik’s guard Jazmine Ocanas, previously scored a runner to trim Cy-Falls lead, 51-50. Right after, the Rams got the stop it needed on defensive. Then, Ocanas geared to give Elsik its first lead since the first quarter, fired a deep trey that rimmed out as she fought for the loose ball, but instead of a rebound, she grabbed her fifth foul. After, Cy-Falls took full advantage of the Rams mishaps when Kit Metoyer took the in-bound pass and found Ellis streaking all alone toward the basket, to push Cy-Falls lead, 53-50.
Late in the fourth quarter, Elsik couldn’t capitalize on a couple excellent opportunities to tie the game nor take the lead. Akunna Elonu couldn’t finished off a couple of break-away fast breaks, one in which Ellis sped down behind and jolted the ball away, another when the Ram’s guard D’jul Vaden stole the ball and passed to Elonu who was ahead of the field but missed the open layup. Following the miss, Alonu fouled Carol Willie, going after a rebound, sending Willie to the free throw line where she made good on both. Soon after, Ellis drew a technical foul for language violation. Ocanas shot the free throws, converting one of two to draw within one, 49-48.
“It was just a tough one to lose. I think we had plenty opportunities to win, we just didn’t capitalize,” Elsik coach Lashawn Johnson said. That’s part of it; you have to make the plays at the end of game. We were put in a couple great situations to beat them in the last two minutes of the game and we just didn’t do it. The kids played hard, they fought back.”
Cy-Falls used the three-point shooting of Ellis and Shernise Robertson to storm out to a 21-7 lead before the Rams battled back to cut the deficit, 33-28 going into intermission.
“We were down a lot. I’m very proud of them to be at this point, this year. We lost three seniors that were extremely big role players so to get back here was awesome,” said Johnson.
Gabby Ocanas and Cy-Falls Kit Metoyer traded 3-pointers to start the third quarter with the Eagles leading, 36-31. From there, both battled back and forth with Cy- holding 47-43 advantage entering the fourth quarter.
After Willie’s layup, Elonu and Porter scored back-to-back baskets to pull Elsik within two points (49-47), just moments into the fourth quarter. On the Rams next possession down the court, Ellis went tumbling to the floor under Elsik’s basket. Before getting up off the floor, she shouted something triggering a technical foul from the referee.
