After pulling off a dramatic, come-from-behind win over Fairfax on Thursday night, Madison nearly pulled off another comeback less than 24 hours later, but fell to Stone Bridge 45-41, relinquishing their Liberty District title.
“I thought Stone Bridge played really well, they deserved to win,” said Warhawks’ coach Kirsten Roberts. “They’re a tough team. The difference was we got outhustled a couple times, they got some big rebounds and that was it.”
The Bulldogs raced out to an early 9-2 advantage to start the game, and completely shut down the Madison offense early on, yielding just five points in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Stone Bridge senior guard Cori Prince (eight points) drained a 3-pointer to give her team a commanding 18-8 lead. But Madison, backed by a large, vocal student section, roared back with a 13-3 run behind sharp-shooting of sophomore guards Megan Henshaw (13 points) and Megan LeDuc (12).
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Stone Bridge’s top scorer, Muriel Tiernan (14 points), spent much of the first half on the bench with foul trouble, but when she was in the game, she was dangerous, as was her replacement, freshman Megan Della-Penna.
The score was knotted at 21 at the half, but the Bulldogs took the early initiative after the break, with a 9-2 run that put them up 30-23. The second half could only be characterized as a flat-out street fight, as players from both teams battled for every ball, loose or not.
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But just as it looked like Stone Bridge might pull away and win in a route, the Warhawks fought back, pulling to within one at 34-33 as senior forward Sarah Schrock made a nice move to the hoop, drew the foul, and hit both free throws. With just less than three minutes to play, the Warhawks had a chance to tie the game, but Prince came up with a big steal to deflate Madison’s momentum.
On the ensuing possession, the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-4 center, Hannah Beth Whitaker, was fouled and went to the line with her team up by two with just fewer than two minutes to play. The entire Madison student section moved a section over, en masse, so as to put themselves in a better position to distract the shooter. Whitaker made one of the two shots, amidst a chorus of dog barks, to give her team a 37-34 lead that it would not relinquish. Stone Bridge shot 13-for-18 from the free throw line for the game, and was 6-8 down the stretch to ice their first district championship.
Megan LeDuc, who poured in a career-high 32 points on Thursday night, had another strong game, but couldn’t produce the same offensive fireworks against a better defensive team.
“Maybe I wasn’t looking for the shot enough tonight, because we didn’t win,” LeDuc said. “But I can rely on my teammates, we’ve got a lot of other girls who can shoot and make good decisions, and I thought a lot of us played really well tonight, so we have something to build on for the regionals next week.”
Murielle Tiernan was named the tournament’s outstanding player, while Cori Prince, Megan Henshaw, and Megan LeDuc were named to the All-Tournament team, along with Kylee Murphree of Fairfax and Lisa Murphy of McLean.
Madison faces Yorktown on Monday night in the first round of the regional tournament. “They’re really similar to Stone Bridge, they hustle, they attack the boards, so it’ll be a good challenge for us,” Roberts said.
