For the ninth straight year, the Rogers Rams are City League girls basketball champions. For the second straight year, they secured a win at the foul line with less than a minute to go.
Friday at Scott, the Rams (15-6) didn’t gain a fourth-quarter lead against Start until there was just 50.1 seconds remaining, when Logen Love sunk a pair of free throws to give Rogers a 37-36 lead that held up as the final score.
The possession prior, Winter Richburg made one of her two attempts to pull the Rams to within one point.
The situation was eerily similar to last year’s matchup between these two squads, when Rogers needed two free throws from Zia Cooke with 3.8 seconds left to get a 52-50 win.
“That’s exactly what was in my head,” Love said. “I was just feeling excited at that moment. What was going through my head was pure pressure, I just have to get it in for my team. I have to be consistent, have a consistent shot.”
Love led both teams with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Richburg wasn’t far behind with nine points.
“Logen’s been huge,” Rogers coach Lamar Smith said. “She’s been stepping up all year with double-doubles. I’m so proud of her because she’s only a junior, she’ll be back next year. I knew she would be here tonight and she answered the call.”
The Spartans (14-7) got one final possession following Love’s free throws, but couldn’t get off a clean shot attempt. A desperation 3-pointer from the right wing by Keyaira Burroughs didn’t fall.
This is the sixth straight year the Spartans fallen to the Rams in this game. Start last won the City League title game in 2011, before this current nine-year streak by Rogers.
“I told the girls you’ve got to seize the moment,” Start coach Leon Kynard said. “You have to understand we got the ball with 20 seconds left on the clock, and we don’t get off a good shot.
“When we were downstairs I told them we’ve got to stay together. We can’t start pointing the finger, because if you do, we’ll fall apart. We’ve got some more good basketball left in us. We’ve just got to take this one on the chin and move on.”
The final minute of the game might have been similar to last year, but this season it was the Spartans who were favored. Start was the preseason favorite, as Rogers lost all five of its starters from its state championship run last season, including Cooke. Of the few returners on the roster, Love was the only one who got playing time in last year’s state title game.
The two squads split their regular-season matchups, with Start winning in December and Rogers winning in January.
“Our girls wanted it,” Smith said. “They wanted it. They were hearing it all year long, that we wouldn’t win the City League, and I challenged them. I challenged them in practice, and they answered the call.”
Based on shooting percentages alone, Rogers appeared to be the underdog for most of this game, too. The Rams shot just 10 of 44 from the field (22.7 percent). Start shot 12 of 29. Both Victoria Alexander and Alasia Easley led with 11 points, and contributed eight and seven rebounds, respectively. The Rams held Start’s second-leading scorer, Burroughs, to seven points.
“We wanted to lock in on her and make sure we weren’t giving her shots,” Smith said. “We knew if she got going she could hit some 3s.”
Rogers won the rebounding battle, 27-21.
The Rams started the game with two 3-pointers from Richburg. But the Spartans used full-court pressure to force five Rogers turnovers and took over the quarter. Start went on an 11-0 run of its own to take a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, led by eight points from Easley.
Rogers rebounded in the second quarter, outscoring the Spartans 9-4 to tie the game at 19. Start missed all five of their field goal attempts in the quarter.
“Once we picked up the defense, our offense started coming to us a little bit,” Love said. “We were able to lock them down.”
The third quarter started off as a defensive stalemate, with neither team scoring a field goal until the 5:16 mark. The Spartans outscored the Rams 9-8 in the quarter.
Burroughs started off the fourth quarter with a big 3 to bump up Start’s lead, 31-27. The two squads traded baskets and free throws for the rest of the quarter.
“It just tells you our program is tough,” Smith said. “This was gut-check, we had to show a lot of heart, and that’s what our program’s about.”
First Published February 15, 2020, 3:21 a.m.
