North Charleston surges back, downs Christ Church for 2A girls’ basketball state title

With eight seconds left in the game and North Charleston senior Ca’Vashia Johnson on the free-throw line to seal the game, Courgars coach Haley Weed turned to her team.

“Eight seconds left!” she told her team on the line.

The Cougars were fouled but missed a few free throws down the stretch, but got the rebounds each time. On one rebound, Tranell Mitchell-Smalls was fouled and hit one free throw to put the game permanently out of reach, and North Charleston defeated Christ Church, 38-34.

Once the final buzzer sounded, the Cougars won their first state title since 1984 and their third in program history.

The Cavaliers fell just short of winning their second consecutive championship and fourth in six years.

Christ Church held a tenuous lead for most of the game and headed into the locker room up 21-14.

But the Cougars clawed back into title contention by causing havoc with their full-court press. Senior guard Johnson, who finished with 17 points and three assists, gave the Cougars their first lead of the second half with a 3-pointer with just under four minutes to go in the game.

The teams went back and fourth, North Charleston’s full-court defense wringing turnovers from the normally even-keeled Cavaliers. The Cougars forced 22 turnovers in the game.

With just over 1:20 left in the game and Christ Church down three, Cavaliers’ Marissa Powe slashed to the basket and her layup cut the score to 35-34, North Charleston.

On the ensuing Christ Church possession, though, with 40 seconds left in the game, North Charleston’s Sophia Simmons made a steal and found Johnson, who was fouled.

That’s how the rest of the game largely played out: North Charleston forcing a turnover, getting fouled and outlasting the Cavaliers.

The Cougars were led by Johnson and Mitchell-Smalls, who notched 12 points and 10 rebounds. Simmons scored eight points and collected six rebounds.

Powe, the team’s only senior, and freshman Yasmene Clark each scored 13 points.

This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 5:13 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.