By David Knox
CLAY – Raven Omar’s 15-footer from the right wing with 1.9 seconds left lifted the Clay-Chalkville Cougars girls over Center Point 30-29 to give CCHS the Class 6A, Area 12 championship.
The Cougars will host Shades Valley in a state subregional game on Monday at 7 p.m.
It was a defensive struggle throughout, but the bigger Eagles held the advantage for most of the game. Both teams played a lot of zone defense, and that made shots hard to come by inside and disrupted the Cougars’ rhythm.
“They’re so much bigger than we are,” Cougars coach Justin Haynie said. “We knew our best chance to win was to pack it in. They’re the No. 8 team in the state and to hold them to 29 points … we won on defense.”
Center Point built a 15-10 halftime lead and pulled out to a 17-10 lead early in the second half. The Eagles chose to hold the ball and be patient on offense, trying to bring the Cougars out of the zone.
Clay went on a 7-2 run to close out the third quarter to trail only 19-17. The Omar, the tournament MVP, opened the fourth quarter with a nice feed to Alex Johnson for the game-tying bucket and then found Summer Pettway for another basket for the lead – that pass actually coming from her hand off her face and into the waiting hands of Pettway.
Pettway then nailed a 3-pointer to give the Cougars a 24-19 lead with 5:12 to go. The Cougars held the lead at 28-25 when Center Point’s Sakina Wynn scored her second straight basket to cut the lead to one point with 44 seconds left.
Neither team was anywhere near the bonus, so the Eagles turned up the pressure and Wynn took the ball away at midcourt and drove in for a layup that gave Center Point a 29-28 lead with 28 seconds left.
On the final possession, Omar tried to get the ball inside, but it bounced back to her on the wing and she knocked in the jumper with 1.9 seconds left for the 30-29 lead.
Omar stole the Eagles’ inbounds pass as the buzzer sounded.
Pettway led the Cougars with nine points, Johnson scored eight and Omar and Mekaila Hill each scored five.
”Summer hit some big shots for us,” Haynie said, “and so did Raven. I’m proud of both of them and proud of our defense. The girls really played their tails off on defense.”
Wynn ked Center Point with 12 and Amber Rivers scored 10. Big Cierra Phillips scored the Eagles’ first four points of the game, but the Cougars held her scoreless the rest of the way.
Center Point also advances to subregion play.