Some days, you know it's just not meant to be, and that's how Digital Harbor's girls basketball team felt yesterday.
The Rams ran neck-and-neck with Pocomoke all through their Class 1A state semifinal until, with 10 seconds left, Pocomoke's Ashley Bishop heaved an 18-foot shot off her hip that caught the net, giving the Warriors a 41-39 victory at UMBC's RAC Arena.
"The irony was we missed a lot of our outside shots," Digital Harbor coach Patrick McDonald said, "and so for that to be the one to clinch it for them, that was serendipitous, to say the least."
Bishop, a senior guard who scored a game-high 19 points, didn't expect the shot to fall.
"All I heard was coach saying, 'Seven seconds.' I was trying to draw the foul when I went up, but I was lucky it just went in," Bishop said.
At the buzzer, Rams forward Asia Logan, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds, had a chance to win it, but her three-point attempt fell short.
The Warriors (23-1) make their second straight trip to the title game, Saturday at 7 p.m. at RAC Arena. They will play Allegany, a 61-53 winner over Surrattsville in last night's other semifinal.
Yesterday, the Rams (19-7), whose starters are all freshmen or sophomores, stayed with the Warriors despite two major problems - poor shooting and lots of fouls.
Pocomoke hit only one field goal in the third quarter but kept pace with the Rams by scoring 11 points at the free-throw line. The Rams, who shot 25 percent from the field, hit four more field goals, but the Warriors went 17-24 from the line.
The score was tied 11 times, and there were nine lead changes. The Rams' Ke'Shara Floyd hit the second of two free throws to tie the game at 39. Digital Harbor's man-to-man defense forced Bishop to take the off-balance shot.
Both teams played well defensively, and the Warriors' zones kept the 6-foot-1 Logan from getting many good looks in the paint.
"We get the ball and then it's hard to see each other cut through the middle, because the girls, they're just bumping into you," said Logan, whose team hit one of 17 three-point shots.
katherine.dunn@baltsun.com