In a hotly contested rivalry game that tested both sides’ resilience, Lafayette overcame a seven-point second-half deficit to get the best of visiting Jamestown, 42-38 Thursday night.
The Rams were led by their frontcourt duo of Desiree Jones and Indyah Brown, who finished with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Point guard Kenya Holiday scored just two points for Lafayette, but put on a passing clinic and served as a catalyst for the team’s offense all night, especially in transition.
“Coming into this game I knew it was going to be another dogfight,” Lafayette head coach P.J. Piggott said after the game. “All the girls know each other and there’s a lot on the line … so it’s definitely a nice win.”
Three players finished in double-digits for the Eagles as Jacque Hecker led with 12, Aine Cannon put up 11 and Aaliyah Lyttle added 10.
“The difference in the game was the fact that we put them on the free throw line way too many times,” Jamestown head coach Mary Glisan said. “They had 24 free throws, so that’s the difference … I don’t feel there’s any way that all of those were fouls but, hey, you can’t blame a game on the officiating. We missed three layups in the beginning and every little thing adds up.”
Lafayette took a quick 4-0 lead off two straight baskets from Jones but Jamestown fired back with four unanswered of its own midway through the first quarter. A Brown free throw gave the Rams a brief advantage before Cannon knocked down her second shot of the quarter to put the Eagles up for the first time before closing the quarter with a 7-6 lead.
Cannon continued her impressive first-half play to start the second, grabbing her own offensive rebound and hitting the put-back to put the Eagles up three before knocking down a transition jumpshot to make it 11-6 in favor of Jamestown.
But Brown was just as good, converting a three-point play to bring the Rams back within two. As Cannon went to the bench midway through the quarter due to foul trouble, Hecker stepped up to do the scoring for the Eagles, scoring their next four points to push Jamestown’s lead back up to four. On the other end, though, Brown was taking over the interior, getting to the line time and again and scoring the Rams’ last four points of the half, all from the free throw line. The teams matched baskets before Lyttle’s high-arching, buzzer-beating baseline floater gave the Eagles a 19-15 halftime lead.
The start of the third quarter was dominated by Jones, who cut the deficit to two with a jumper and then grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul and put it back up and in for a three-point play that gave Lafayette a 20-19 advantage. Things turned back in Jamestown’s favor quickly, though, as the Rams went cold and the Eagles used a Cannon layup and two consecutive three-balls to rattle off an 8-0 run and take a 27-20 lead.
Two straight fast-break assists from Holiday to Libby Bland got Lafayette back on track, but the Rams still trailed 35-29 at the end of three.
They wasted no time closing the gap in the fourth, though. Holiday penetrated, drew defenders and found Jones for an easy layup to cut it to four before Jones came back to hit two free throws and make it a two-point game. Jones then received the baseline inbound on Jamestown’s next possession and took it the other way for a layup to tie the game at 35.
“Indyah and Desiree, against other post players they have the advantage as far as athleticism,” Piggott said. “So it goes to show you that whenever they’re clicking and our guard is just maintaining the game, we have a lot of success.”
Finally, Lafayette’s Alicia Lee hit a layup to make it 37-35 Rams before Glisan — having just watched her team’s six-point cushion evaporate in a matter of minutes — took a timeout with 5:25 to play.
Cannon hit a foul shot to stop the bleeding, but the Rams kept rolling as Lee knocked down a three-ball to put Lafayette up 40-36. Jamestown’s Samantha McLaughlin responded with a basket at the three-minute mark to make it a two-point game, but the Eagles struggled to maintain possession down the stretch, as turnovers plagued both sides for the final minutes of play.
The Eagles got a break when Lafayette threw its inbound pass out with 51 seconds remaining, but Cannon couldn’t convert on a second-chance jumpshot. Holiday missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 on the Rams’ ensuing possession, but Bland chased down the rebound and got it back to Holiday, who was sent back to the line with 14 seconds remaining. This time, she hit both, sealing the district win.
“All games are tough to lose, but there’s a special kind of rivalry between Lafayette and Jamestown,” Glisan said. “They know each other so well and they’re friends so they get bragging rights, and I guess this year we don’t.”
Lafayette 42, Jamestown 38
Jamestown: 7 12 16 3
Lafayette: 6 9 14 13
Jamestown: Lyttle 10, Hecker 12, McLaughlin 2, Harrow 2, Cannon 11, Graves 1. 15; 4-10 38
Lafayette: Bland 5, Brown 13, Holiday 2, Jones 17, Lee 5. 13; 14-23 42
