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Lindsay Allen carries St. John’s to WCAC girls’ basketball championship

By Preston Williams,February 26, 2013

View Photo Gallery - : St. John’s wins WCAC girls’ basketball championship by one point: Senior…

After a while Tuesday night in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference girls’ basketball championship game at Bender Arena, the public address announcer would have to pause after he said a certain first name to make sure he tacked on the right last name.

The first name was Lindsay, as in St. John’s senior guard Lindsay Allen, or Lindsey, as in Good Counsel senior guard Lindsey Spann.

In the end, with their teams facing each other for the third straight year in the championship, only one Lindsay/Lindsey could leave with a title. This time it was Allen, who scored 28 points and went 16 for 16 at the foul line in willing her team to a 67-66 win over the defending champions.

It was Allen, the league’s player of the year, who with a coast-to-coast layup off a steal with 4 minutes 23 seconds left gave St. John’s a lead it would not lose. It was Allen who hit two free throws with 31.5 seconds to play, fouling out Spann, to tie her season high of 28 points, after Good Counsel had pulled to 63-62.

And it was 5-foot-7 Allen who grabbed the rebound, her 11th of the game, when Falcons senior forward Amanda Fioravanti could have tied the game with 13.7 seconds left when she was trying to complete a three-point play.

St. John’s (30-1), whose only loss this season had been to Good Counsel, was able to run the clock down to 1.5 seconds before the Falcons fouled, essentially ending the game in the Cadets’ fourth straight WCAC championship game appearance.

“You’re talking about two of the premier guards in the country,” St. John’s Coach Jonathan Scribner said of Allen (Notre Dame) and Spann (Penn State). “I’d take either one. [Allen] can make coaches look really good. Just put the ball in her hands and trust that she’s going to make the plays. I can’t believe the four years is gone.”

Sophomore guard Amari Carter added 19 points for St. John’s. Senior forward Tori Oliver, the team’s second-leading scorer, did not score in the first half but made baskets on post moves on consecutive trips down the floor with less than three minutes left to extend her team’s lead to six, its largest. She also had 11 rebounds.

“We knew she would come through in the end,” Carter said.

Good Counsel, making its seventh WCAC final appearance in nine years, took an early 11-2 lead and was up by five entering the fourth quarter.

“We basically in the first three to four minutes did everything the game plan said not to do,” Scribner said. “And allowed them to do everything we didn’t want them to do. Unbelievable get-back. Kept it close. Really was hoping we would get a spurt at some point and get some separation. I guess six points was enough separation.”

Spann poured in a season-high 30 points, including making 13 of 16 foul shots.