For four long years, Mount de Sales senior Ana Martinez had waited for a chance to win the Catholic League Tournament title. For nearly a decade, the Sailors had waited to beat conference rival Seton Keough.
With one miraculous half-court heave last night at Archbishop Spalding, Martinez and Mount de Sales took care of both.
After receiving the ball deep in the Sailors' end with four seconds left, the forward drove to just over mid-court and threw up a high-arching prayer that found nothing but net as the final buzzer sounded, giving the Sailors a 44-43 victory over the regular-season champions and setting off a celebration that lasted more than 20 minutes.
"I really didn't think it had a chance," said Martinez, who was mobbed by fans and teammates after the game. "I was just saying, 'Please God, let it go in.' I kept my follow-through and it swished."
With the victory, the fourth-seeded Sailors (16-7) advance to their first tournament final, where they'll face second seed St. Frances -- a 69-50 winner over No. 3 seed St. Mary's in last night's other semifinal -- today at 2 o'clock at Spalding.
But they'll have to do a lot to match last night's performance.
Led by Martinez and center Amy Buck (13 points each), Mount de Sales played a relatively error-free game, turning over the ball just 12 times and giving the Gators fits with their half-court defense.
Despite getting out-rebounded, 35-21, they used patience on offense and never trailed by more than five points in the second half.
"I told the girls to stay focused," said Sailors coach Bill Held, whose team held Gators leading scorer Melanie Morris to three points. "I told them that if we stayed with them and kept the score low that we could win it."
Trailing, 38-34, early in the fourth quarter, the Sailors scored six straight points -- the last two on Lisa Banbury's 10-foot baseline jumper -- to take a 40-38 lead.
The Gators (24-3) then regained the lead, and extended it to 43-41 on a foul shot by Morris with 15 seconds left. But after beating Mount de Sales twice during the season in close games, this time it wasn't to be.
"It's like an earthquake or an avalanche -- there's nothing you can do about that," said first-year Seton Keough coach Jim Stromberg. "I think that's what makes the game of basketball so great.
"A kid can throw in a shot like that and she'll remember it for the rest of her life."
Said Martinez: "I feel like I could walk on water. I just can't believe it went in."
In the late game, St. Frances rebounded from one of its worst offensive performances of the season on Friday to post one of its best, shooting 50 percent in the first half en route to a blowout victory over St. Mary's.
The defending tournament champions were led by senior Melba Chambers, who scored 33 points, including 18 in the second half.
"I don't think we played as well as we could've on Friday, but we excused them for that," said St. Frances coach Jerome Shelton. "We asked them to come back and play two good games in a row. Tonight they definitely played better."
The Panthers forced six turnovers in the first three minutes in building an 11-2 lead.
Their full-court pressure gave the Saints problems all night, forcing 27 turnovers and holding the usually sure-scoring Saints to 16-for-44 from the field.
But it was the lack of defense by St. Mary's that cost it the game, according to coach Harry Dobson.
"We just didn't play very good defense," said Dobson, whose team split with St. Frances during the regular season. "We've been up and down all year, and tonight we were down. They simply outplayed us, but our defense was atrocious."
Annetta Davis led St. Mary's with 22 points, while Kristi Webb added 17 for the victors.