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ANAHEIM, Calif. — As Lynwood's sectional final game approached, head coach Ellis Barfield continued to tell anyone who would listen that his Lady Knights hadn't fallen off of the map.
After a six-year hiatus of not playing in a CIF Final, Lynwood defeated JW North Friday, 66-55, for the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA Championship at the Anaheim Convention Center. It's their first section championship since 2006.
It took some resolve to reclaim their place in the Southern California basketball landscape. The Lady Knights (25-4) squandered a 20-point second-half lead. Their lead was down to just two points after JW North's Kamille Diaz hit a 3-pointer from the left wing, making the score 53-51.
It was the second of back-to-back 3-pointers for the Huskies and all of a sudden the Anaheim Convention Center was as loud as it had been all afternoon.
"We came in the game ready to fight, so in those last minutes I think we pulled it together," said JW North guard Akilah Martin. "We were able to do it but we just couldn't pull it off at the end."
"Every good team has a great run in them," said Barfield. "We just had to respond. A lot of good teams have mental lapses. I told our girls we just had to be resilient. I wanted to be the same coach at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game. I didn't want to throw any chairs, scream or bust up anything. I just know we had to believe that we could finish this game. We started it. We had to finish it."
The Lady Knights had a nemesis on their hands, although it wasn't the Huskies. It was the free throw line. The charity stripe had been a problem for the Knights all season, but they knocked down foul shots when they needed to the most, making 11-of-14 in the fourth quarter to secure the title. They finished the game 22-for-29 at the line.
"They kept scoring and we dropped our heads but our free throws helped us out a lot in the end," said Lynwood's Priscilla Lopez, who finished with a team-high 14 points.
"We've actually been (bad) from the free throw line all year but in the playoffs we've been building," said Barfield. "We spent a lot of time on those free throws and it paid off."
It appeared the Lady Knights had the game well in control, holding the Huskies scoreless for nearly six minutes in the second quarter.
When JW North finally ended its scoring drought with less than 30 seconds left in the half, the Knights answered right back with a Nijila Johnson 3-pointer from the right corner to put Lynwood up 32-20 at halftime.
The halftime lead ballooned to 20 points in the second half, and that's when the Huskies made a run.
JW North center Priscilla Brooks fouled out after setting an illegal screen with 2:52 left in the game. She left the game with 18 points.
Lynwood captain Shahana Zeigler huddled her team at half-court.
"I was just making sure everybody stayed poised," Zeigler said. "We just kept our cool together and we gave it 110% when we came back out."
JW North never got any closer.
As Barfield left the press room Friday evening, a CIF official told him "welcome back."
Barfield was back. As the leader of the school that won five CIF Southern Section titles from 2000-06, he was back on top with another title in 2012.
