Barons lose the lead, and game, in the final two minutes, falling by a point.
By BOB PUTNAM, Times Staff Writer
Published February 25, 2006
LAKELAND - St. Petersburg Catholic's Robin Link was racing toward the basket. The game and the chance to win the state title hung in the balance.
Link released her shot with no time left.
The layup bounced once off the rim. Then it bounced off.
Florida High 55, St. Petersburg Catholic 54.
Afterward, Link wheeled toward the bench, her lower lip quivering. As she fell to her knees, she reached for her jersey to wipe away the tears.
For the rest of the Barons, there was disbelief. The emotional rush of the final two minutes of the game, in which SPC had the lead, was such that even after Link's miss it was hard to absorb the outcome.
Some players started milling around near coach Nick Vandewalle or stood on the court as if they were going to play again. Vandewalle told his team he has never been more proud of any group of girls, and that he could not have asked anything more from them.
"I don't think I'll ever look at an NCAA Tournament game the same," Vandewalle said. "Usually, all I do is pay attention to the winners, especially in tight games. I think now I'll start to notice the losers a little more.
"We can sympathize."
Every game has its turning points. SPC will always remember the last one minute, 40 seconds.
At that point, the Barons held a 54-51 lead. Then things slipped away.
It started when the Seminoles' Varisia Raffington hit one of two free throws to make it 54-52.
On SPC's next possession, Link was fouled and went to the line. She missed the front end of a one-and-one. Even worse, the Barons' Sasha Chaplin was called for a foul on the ensuing rebound. That put Florida's Raffington back on the line, and she hit both free throws to tie it at 54.
The last 30 seconds were a blur, with both teams moving frantically down the court for the winning shot. With three seconds left, the Seminoles' Gigi Thomas was fouled and hit one of her two free throws.
SPC called timeout for one last play.
Kate Carl threw an inbound pass from the far baseline to Chaplin, who caught the pass and found Link.
"All I was thinking was find someone and get them the ball," Chaplin said. "I found Robin."
Link caught the ball, but didn't have time to dribble.
"I thought time was going to expire," Link said. "All I was thinking was don't miss that one.
"Of course, I did."
The loss came despite the performance of Chaplin, who scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds to earn MVP honors.
"(Sasha) dominated," said SPC guard Shannon McElhaney, who led all players with 11 assists and joined Chaplin on the all-tournament team.
Unfortunately, all that will be remembered in the end is the shot.
"For me, the clock couldn't run fast enough," Florida coach Lisa Kelley said. "You don't realize how much you can do with 2.6 seconds left. And that shot, that layup, falls the whole game. For some reason it doesn't for (SPC) when they need it.
