Gustave’s 3 in final seconds sends STA girls to region final after near collapse vs. Ely
It was pure chaos and that’s just what Blanche Ely likes. St. Thomas Aquinas’ double-digit fourth-quarter lead was gone and the Raiders trailed in the final seconds Tuesday in Pompano Beach. They had crumbled against the Tigers’ pressure. They were out of timeouts and down by a point, and had to go the length of the floor in less than 10 seconds to avoid another devastating loss to Blanche Ely.
The Tigers trapped — St. Thomas Aquinas knew they would — and Samara Spencer beat it. With a little more than five seconds to go, Spencer found Breanna Gustave in the right corner with Blanche Ely’s tallest defender raising a hand in her face. She did all she could: She threw up a prayer and the Raiders, after blowing an 11-point lead, were back ahead 46-44 after a game-winning three-pointer.
“It was just win or go home,” Gustave said. “We’re not going home again.”
Tigers point guard Ja’Leah Williams raced up for the floor and got an open three at the buzzer, but her shot banged off the back iron and fell to the gymnasium floor at Blanche Ely High School. She and most of her teammates did, too. A year after winning a state title, the Tigers’ defense ended in the Region 4-Class 6A semifinals against their fiercest rival.
St. Thomas Aquinas, which beat Blanche Ely in the 2019 postseason on the way to a loss in the 8A championship, is back into the region final for the first time since then. The Raiders (14-4) will travel down from Fort Lauderdale to Miami on Friday to face Lourdes Academy with a spot in the 6A semifinals on the line.
After six straight losses to the Tigers, St. Thomas Aquinas finally shook past its nemesis.
“It means everything,” Raiders coach Oliver Berens said.
St. Thomas Aquinas and Blanche Ely (18-2) met three times this season and three times last year. In 2020, the Tigers ousted the Raiders in the Region 4-6A semifinals on the way to their first championship. This year, Blanche Ely won the regular-season matchup, the district championship game and the Big 8 championship game. The Tigers’ last two wins — both in the last three weeks — were by a total of 10 points.
On Tuesday, St. Thomas Aquinas found itself in an unusual spot. They were the ones with a big lead in the second half. The Raiders took a 20-16 lead into halftime by holding Blanche Ely to 7-of-23 shooting in the first half with six turnovers. The Tigers scored only five points in the entire second quarter, and went more than eight minutes without scoring when they missed eight straight shots across the second and third quarters. Early in the fourth quarter, St. Thomas Aquinas pushed its lead up to 41-30.
Blanche Ely, which came back from an 11-point deficit at halftime of the 2020 state title game, finally began its comeback. Williams, who signed a national letter of intent with the Miami Hurricanes last year, scored 11 points in the fourth quarter after scoring just four in the first three quarters, including a scoreless first half. The Tigers forced five turnovers in the final six minutes as they chipped away at the Raiders’ lead.
Blanche Ely wing Zaria Blake started the final push with a three off an assist from Williams, then Williams hit a pull-up jumper from long range to cut the lead to 41-36. Two possessions later, Williams drove and missed wild shot off the bottom of the rim, but grabbed the rebound, scored and got fouled. A three-point possession cut St. Thomas Aquinas’ lead all the way down to 41-39 before Spencer, who signed with the Arkansas Razorbacks last year, finally made two free throws after missing four straight.
Williams isolated to get a floater in the lane, only to misfire, but, again, she made a play with a second effort, stripping Spencer and making another layup. Two more possessions led to two more turnovers for the Raiders and the Tigers took their first lead of the second half on a free throw by point guard Mikhia Lumsdon.
St. Thomas Aquinas played the final minute without any timeouts, so the Raiders had to execute the final play flawlessly. Spencer handled the press and Gustave ran to the corner, and St. Thomas Aquinas’ season survived.
“What a play she made,” Berens said. “We knew they were going to bring up the pressure and they did, but we responded at the last moment when we needed it.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 9:57 PM.
