Something about tournament championships does not seem to agree with Glenelg Country School's girls teams.
The Dragons swept the competition to win the Association of Independent Schools B Division regular-season basketball championship, but last night they could not add the tournament title falling to Lutheran, 27-24, at the College of Notre Dame.
Top-seeded Glenelg (12-5) led by as many as 10 points early in the second half, but foul trouble and a bit of last-quarter panic helped Lutheran score 16 fourth-quarter points. The Saints (9-11) had only scored 11 before that.
The loss was especially disappointing for the Dragons because the same thing had happened to their field hockey team last fall. Both teams went unbeaten during the regular season only to be upset in the tournament championship.
After the game, Dragons coach Barbara Brummett, whose team had beaten Lutheran 46-33 for the regular-season title two weeks ago, stressed the season's milestones to her disappointed players.
"I told them we made a lot of history in this year," said Brummett. "We were first in our league that we never did before, we got to the final game that we never did before, and we should be proud of ourselves. But we didn't deserve this game. I told them we had to do three things and they didn't do them, so we lost."
Brummett's three keys were rebounding, pressuring on defense and staying out of foul trouble.
Although Sonia Fernandez-Martin grabbed 17 rebounds, including 13 in the first half, the Saints outrebounded Glenelg, 54-48, including a 17-10 edge in the critical fourth quarter.
Early in the third quarter, the Dragons looked as if they might run away with the game after Akosua Kankam fed Allison Hoke for a 16-6 lead. Going into the fourth quarter, the Dragons still led by six.
They switched to a box-and-one defense on Saints guard Amanda Minor, who had scored seven of her team's 11 points. Although that defense held Minor to just two in the fourth quarter, the rest of the Saints rallied with a seven-point run.
Lutheran turned the game around when Rachel Seaborn fed Jenni Werner for back-to-back short jumpers on nearly identical inbounds plays to give the Saints an 18-17 lead with 5:09 to play. That was Lutheran's first lead since 2-0.
Although the Dragons (12-5) tied the game with 2:54 left on Robin Zimmerly's 18 footer, Lutheran never again trailed. The Saints pulled ahead 27-21 and only Kankam's 20-footer with eight seconds left brought Glenelg within three.
The Dragons suffered a huge blow when Fernandez-Martin fouled out with 4:49 to go. To make matters worse, Zimmerly followed her to the bench for good two minutes later.
In the last 2:42, Glenelg only managed three shots and missed the front ends of three one-and-ones. The Dragons also struggled at the free-throw line, hitting just one of 12 attempts.