Sophomore Reese Dalton just absolutely didn’t look worried when Steward made her step to the line three different times in the final minute as Covenant’s girls basketball team tried to protect a narrow lead.
It didn’t matter that the No. 6-seeded Eagles hadn’t advanced to a state championship game since before any of their players were born. It didn’t matter that the entire Covenant roster has just two juniors and everyone else is a freshman, a sophomore or in eighth grade.
It only mattered that Dalton knew what was at stake.
“I just wanted it so bad for our team, we just fought so hard to get her,” Dalton said. “I just tried my best and it worked out.”
Dalton went 5-for-6 at the line in the closing seconds, a big part of her team-high 14 points, and the sophomore helped close the door on Steward. With the 55-51 win, the Eagles continued a Cinderella run that really kicked off with a state quarterfinal upset of Nansemond Suffolk Academy and advanced to the VISAA D2 championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. It will be the Eagles’ first state girls basketball final appearance in 25 years, when Covenant lost to Paul VI in a state title game in 1997.
“I just couldn’t pick a better group of girls to go to the finals with, it’s unbelievable,” Dalton said.
Her coach certainly had all the confidence she could hope for when Dalton, who placed second in the state in cross country this fall, was the one drawing the fouls down the stretch.
“She is a cross country runner and is used to that pressure,” said Covenant coach Caroline Wilke. “She’s come into the gym to get help from me and another coach has been working with her and I knew the time was going to come when her free throws were going to count. I told her to just believe in herself and she nailed them.”
The free throws sealed it, but it was Covenant’s identity that they’ve built this season as a frenzied, pressure-oriented, uptempo squad that put them in a spot to close it. Steward, who boasts their own dynamic young talent in eighth grader Sanai Green who scored 21 points for the Spartans in the loss, struggled at times to handle Covenant’s full court press, committing turnover after turnover. The Eagles didn’t cash in on all of them, but it took Steward out of its rhythm.
“I told them in the locker room this has to be your ultimate scrap game and in addition to that, if you box out, we’ll be successful,” Wilke said. “We boxed out, we were scrappy just like Tuesday (in the state quarters) and I think that really frustrated them.”
Covenant made good on enough of those opportunities to make a difference with Delaney Poindexter and Makyala Hargrove scoring 11 points each and Kerrigan Poindexter scoring 10 to make. CeCe Corbey, Kerrigan Poindexter and Hargrove each hit second half 3-pointers that were crucial to keeping pace with Steward, with Hargove knocking down two of them in the fourth quarter. Poindexter also added three steals and four rebounds while Hargrove had four boards.
Covenant led 15-13 at the end of the first quarter and then extended that lead to 32-27 before halftime. The Eagles couldn’t get shots to fall in the third though and by the time the fourth quarter hit the game was tied 37-37 with the Eagles scoring just five points in the third. Covenant absorbed that counterpunch though and cranked things back up in the fourth before Steward answered again. With 3:58 left, Steward hit a three to make it 43-40.
Kerrigan Poindexter answered though with three minutes to play, knocking down the equalizer and then Hargrove’s second one from beyond the arc made it 46-43 with 2:15 to go. Dalton drove and hit a tough layup to help maintain that lead and that forced Steward to start putting the Eagles on the line.
Covenant will take on a Miller squad they lost 52-39 to back in early January Saturday afternoon at Benedictine in Richmond.
