Holy Innocents’ ends Pelham’s dream season in semifinals

COLUMBUS — Briunna Freeman put her hands over her eyes and walked slowly to the dressing room, trying to fight back tears.

Timbreanna Hudson lowered her head.

Coach Antonia Tookes tried hard to smile when shaking hands with the Holy Innocents’ players but inside, this one was hard to swallow.

Just two days after getting over a quarterfinal curse with an impressive victory over Manchester, Pelham’s dream season was crushed by top-ranked Holy Innocents 78-70 Friday night at Columbus State University’s Lumpkin Center in the Class AA state semifinals.

The Lady Hornets (28-2) gave a valiant effort against Lady Bears. But they spent the fourth quarter trying to catch up and with their post player — Hudson — watching from the bench after fouling out early in the final quarter.

With Hudson out, Holy Innocents’ much-bigger lineup inside pretty much had its way.

To make matters worse, Pelham hit just three shots from the floor in the fourth period, shooting a paltry three for 14. They did keep themselves in the game by converting free throws.

“Everybody thought we were supposed get a (state championship) ring,” Pelham’s Quadranique Franklin said. “It’s hard. We’ve never been this far before.”

After a slow first quarter, Pelham began to hit its stride and rallied to tie the game at 19 heading into the second quarter. Then the two heavyweights traded leads and baskets throughout the second as Holy Innocents built a 36-35 lead at halftime.

But the third quarter was when things began to unravel for Pelham. Hudson picked up her fourth foul early, then Holy Innocents’ Erica Cassell went wild underneath the basket as the Lady Bears built leads as high as 13.

But Pelham used full-court pressure in the final period to create havoc and slowly pulled itself back into the game.

Freeman drilled the Lady Hornets’ first basket from the floor with 2:24 left, stripping the net to pull to within six at 71-65. Then Pelham whittled the deficit down to three when Freeman stole a pass and sank a lay up to make it 73-70 with 1:19 left.

That ignited a raucous Pelham crowd and following a Holy Innocents’ timeout, Freeman intercepted another pass with 43 seconds left.

As she attempted to push the ball up court, she was whistled for an offensive push foul on Holy Innocents’ Khayla Pointer, who calmly sank both free throws to effectively end any hopes of a Pelham comeback.

“That was kind of a crazy call,” Pelham’s Destiny Thomas said. “We came back and with 40 seconds left in the game, they called something that they haven’t called all game. We kept trying and didn’t stop until there was zero, zero left on the clock. We just fell short.”

Freeman, playing her final high school game before heading to Arkansas, finished with a game-high 28 points. Thomas added 17, while Mahogany Brown, who helped ignite the Lady Hornets with a pair of 3-pointers in the second half, finished with 10.

“We fought hard, we just came up short,” Franklin said. “But it’s hard right now.”