Firestone senior guard Tayelor McCalister and her teammates were just too fast and too disruptive for Kenmore on Thursday night.
The Falcons routinely forced turnovers that paved the way for a 58-40 victory over the Cardinals in the City Series Girls Basketball Playoff Championship at North High School.
The Falcons (15-4) forced the Cardinals (13-6) to commit 31 turnovers, but also committed 17 themselves.
“It’s real simple, the girls played hard,” Firestone coach Audley McGill said. “It wasn’t one of our better games, but we won. In the championship game you will take a win any day.
“I think all of them played real good defense. Tayelor scored a lot of buckets on turnovers. Our defense was relentless. We could have been a little more patient on offense, but hey, like I said, we will take the win.”
McCalister spearheaded a tenacious defensive effort with 20 points, seven steals and four assists.
“We started off a little slow,” McCalister said. “We really didn’t know what to expect from Kenmore because they lost some players. We had to put the pressure on the ball. We knew [senior] Alexis Lee was going to try to shoot 3’s. She killed us last time, so we tried to get out on the perimeter, cover and make our layups.”
Kenmore played without four of its regular players, including one starter. Junior guard Porshae Hearn tried her best to fill the void and totaled 28 points, 10 rebounds and six steals.
“She really stepped her game up,” said Kenmore coach Yontami Jones. “Even though they double-teamed her, she still came out with 28 points. They voted her player of the year and she deserved to get player of the year.”
Jones acknowledged that turnovers plagued the Cardinals and that 8-of-17 shooting from the free throw line didn’t help either. The Falcons made 13-of-17 free throws.
“A couple of times it seemed like they wanted to overpass and we would get called for three seconds in the key or we would travel,” Jones said. “My niece, [senior] Essence Bell, I had to yell at her for her to shoot the ball. She finally shot it and scored in the fourth quarter.”
McCalister, senior guard Shaia Horton and the rest of their teammates were all smiles as they talked and laughed following the game with a piece of the net and medals around their necks.
Firestone’s celebration was made possible following leads of 12-9 after the first quarter, 24-15 at halftime and 37-27 after three quarters.
The Falcons put the Cardinals away with a 17-2 run to start the fourth quarter and extended their advantage to 54-29 with 3:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Horton finished with 11 points and five rebounds. She said a season-split with Kenmore in the regular season provided extra motivation.
“We dug down deep since they were such close games the first two times we played,” Horton said. “We had to separate ourselves from them. We had to prove to everybody that we are still part of that elite group and that we can still battle with the big teams.”
Falcons junior forward Mishae Roper contributed 13 points and 14 rebounds, and junior guard Brooke Morgan scored 10 points.
“This feels real good,” Roper said. “We just tried our hardest to play and if you work hard, in the end it pays off.”
Bell finished with seven points and eight rebounds.
The triumph gave Firestone its third league playoff title in a row and 11th since 1998. McGill has guided the Falcons to 10 of the 11 titles since 2001.
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the high school blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/. Also follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MBeavenABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
