OAKLAND – Jubilation, devastation, and the poise of Ursuline senior Brooklynn Williams.
All three were on display after St. James roared back to take the lead with seven seconds remaining, erasing a seven-point deficit in the final minute.
As the go-ahead bucket dropped through the hoop, St. James players leapt in the air, Ursuline players froze in disbelief, and Williams kept playing.
“I looked back, I saw there were seven seconds still, and I knew the game wasn’t over,” Williams said.
Williams retrieved the ball from the net, planted her right foot out-of-bounds and launched a midcourt pass to Ella Hunter, who flipped the ball to a streaking Evelyn Shane for the buzzer-beating layup that gave Ursuline a heart-stopping 54-53 victory over St. James in a Class 4 Sectional Monday at Ursuline Academy.
Ursuline (24-5), which advanced to its first state quarterfinal in program history, will host Central-Park Hills (25-4) at 6 p.m. Friday.
St. James trailed 52-45 with under a minute remaining when senior Emily Recker scored on a strong drive to the hoop, then stole the ball in the backcourt and scored again to slice the lead to three points.
After Ursuline missed two free throws at the other end, Tigers’ junior Lydia Kemnitzer drove coast-to-coast to slice the deficit to 52-51, then swiped a sideline inbounds pass and laid it in with 7 seconds remaining to give St. James a stunning one-point lead.
“It was just effort. They’re hard-nosed, they never back down, they never quit,” St. James’ coach Terry Wells said of the Tigers.
Prior to the Kemnitzer interception and go-ahead basket, Ursuline was forced to use its final timeout when the Bears could not safely inbound the ball. In the St. James’ huddle, Wells discussed probable scenarios, none of which involved a quick steal and score.
“We talked about fouling on the catch. I expected to walk down (to the other end), shoot two free throws, and we talked about what to do if we’re down two, if we’re down three,” Wells said. “We didn’t expect to get a steal and a bucket. The only thing I didn’t tell my kids was to sprint back if we score.”
When Kemnitzer scored, time froze – but Williams, with the ball in her right hand, kept moving.
“We run that every day, to get the ball to the middle,” Williams said. “I knew Ella would make the extra pass.”
Ella Hunter, who controlled the paint with 14 rebounds, including nine offensive, made her most impactful play at center court. She caught Williams’ pass at the Ursuline logo and flipped a soft, catchable pass in stride to a sprinting Evelyn Shane.
“I freaked out when they scored,” Hunter said. “But (Brooklynn) passed it to me in the middle, I turned around and saw Evelyn wide open.”
Shane caught the ball, knew time was running out, and made a beeline for the rim.
“I was just thinking, we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go. We had no timeouts left, we had to get the ball up the floor. I wasn’t even looking at the clock, I was just going,” said Shane, who converted the final layup with 1.4 seconds remaining.
Shane was spectacular during the final eight minutes, scoring 15 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter. St. James used two defenders to bracket the 5-foot-10 sophomore when she was positioned in the post, but when Shane moved to the perimeter, she used her devastating first step to get to the rim.
“In the third quarter, we were getting her in mismatches on the wing, but she wasn’t exploiting it, she wasn’t taking it to the basket. I told her, ‘You have to do what you do,’” Ursuline coach Jeff Stevens said.
Shane powered her way to the rim to score Ursuline’s first nine points of the fourth quarter, helping the Bears build a 48-37 lead with four minutes remaining before St. James mounted its ferocious comeback.
St. James (21-7) won at least 19 games for the fifth consecutive season, including a fourth-place state finish in 2022.
“My kids answered every single bell. (Ursuline) just made the last basket,” Wells said.
Prior to Monday, Ursuline had never advanced past the sectional round, most recently, losing to Union 63-46 in a Class 5 sectional in 2021 and Normandy 58-45 in a Class 4A Sectional in 1987.
“We’ve made history all year,” Williams said. “We broke the single-season wins record (21) and being able to do this my senior year means a lot.”
Hunter added, “This team is family, and to make history with them is so exciting.”
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