The three-point shot was the Norwell Knights’ friend all season, until the relationship turned rocky in the 3A girls’ state championship game Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Knights, who had hit 37.8% of their threes heading into the final, hit only 21% (3-of-14) Saturday, while their opponents from Gibson Southern made a state-finals record 11 (out of 20 attempts for red-hot 55%) and weathered a second-half Norwell comeback to outlast the Knights, 63-60.
The Knights had the ball and a chance to tie in the final seconds, but Kennedy Fuelling’s three-point attempt at the buzzer hit the right side of the rim.
The Titans led by 10 at the half, 36-26, and scored an astonishing 18 points in the first four minutes of the third quarter to expand the lead to 19 points at 54-35. The blitz was led by senior guard Chloey Graham’s four straight threes. The last two—her fifth and sixth of the game for a new state record— came within a 20-second span at the end of the Titan surge.
Norwell coach Eric Thornton lamented how his team lost track of Graham during her streak. “We can’t let her grab and shoot as much as she did,” he said.
Anyone who thought the game was over at that point didn’t know anything about the Knights’ resilience.
Facing a possible rout, Norwell rallied with a 12-0 run. Dekota Hubble started the comeback with a bucket on the block, and super soph Vanessa Rosswurm followed with a running hook shot on the right side. Hubble then corralled Rosswurm’s missed baseline floater and put it in. A falling-down circus shot by Makenzie Fuess, an aggressive right-side drive by Annabelle Johnson, and a fast break layup by Fuelling pulled the Knights within seven at 54-47 with 12 seconds left.
The Knights’ comeback was fueled not only by their resurgent offense, but also by the Titans’ struggle with turnovers. They coughed it up 25 times for the game, surely a state finals record for a winning team. Norwell steals accounted for 17 of the turnovers, most coming from the Knights’ vaunted 1-3-1 trap.
Graham’s two free throws finally stopped the Norwell run, and Gibson Southern took a nine-point lead into the final period.
The Norwell rally was far from over.
Rosswurm’s high-arching three from the right wing started the fourth-quarter scoring. The Titans’ Ally Malone responded with a three-pointer from the top of the key, but Hubble’s free throw, Fuelling’s scoop shot, and Fuess’s three from the right side cut the lead to three at 59-56.
An over-and-back call on Gibson Southern gave the ball to Norwell with 4:57 to go. The teams traded misses, and then, during a rare Titan defensive lapse, Fuess rifled a pass from the top of the key to a wide-open Hubble underneath. Her bucket completed an 11-3 Norwell run and cut the lead to one with 4:02 left.
If you’re keeping score at home, that was a 23-5 Norwell dominance from the middle of the third quarter to the middle of the fourth.
Gibson Southern point guard Gabby Spink lost the ball, giving the Knights a chance to take the lead. The Titans’ 6-1 freshman center, Paige Schnaus, thwarted the effort by blocking Fuess’s layup at the 2:50 mark. Spink made a three on the Titans’ next possession to make it a four-point lead, 62-58.
Fuelling hit a turnaround jumper with 1:22 left, and the Titans began eating time off the clock. At the 33-second mark, Norwell caught a break. Just as Schnaus, wide open on the block, was about to receive a pass, Gibson Southern coach Kyle Brasher called time out. When play resumed, the Knights trapped Graham in the backcourt, forcing her to travel.
It was another chance for Norwell to tie or take the lead, but Johnson missed a drive on the left side. Fortunately for Norwell, she tied up a Titan on the rebound with the possession arrow pointed Norwell’s way. But shortly after the Knights inbounded the ball, Malone swiped it from Fuelling, who immediately fouled Malone to stop the clock.
With 9.5 to go, Hubble fouled Nola Ravellette. It was Norwell’s fifth foul, sending Ravellette to the line. She hit her first free throw to make it 63-60, but missed the second. Norwell got the rebound and called time out with 5.1 seconds left to set up Fuelling’s final shot.
Thornton thought Fuelling did a good job getting the shot off in the tense action in the final few seconds. “She was looking to shoot the ball and they had a defender there and shot faked and just got her feet set, got a really good look at it,” he said. “That was the look we were wanting right there and if it goes in, we’re playing for four more minutes.”
The Titans’ superiority on threes helped them build their first-half lead. They made three in the first quarter on their way to an 18-14 edge and added two more in the second quarter, which they won 18-12. Meanwhile, the Knights, harassed by Gibson Southern’s sticky man-to-man defense, managed only five three-point attempts, hitting none.
Rosswurm, with nine points, and Fuess, with eight, kept Norwell in the game in the first half.
“I thought our girls defensively did a lot of good things,” summed up Gibson Southern coach Kyle Brasher. “Obviously, we built that 19-point lead, but Norwell’s a great team, senior led, and we knew they were going to make a run.”
The win upped the Titans’ record to 26-4 and gave them their first girls’ basketball state championship. They had been runners-up in 2002. Norwell, which had made it to the final four back in 1977, dropped to 23-5 and must say goodbye to four senior starters: Fuelling, Fuess, Hubble, and Johnson.
Gibson Southern returns Spink, Ravellette, and Shnaus from its starting five.
Graham led the Titans with 22 points. Spink had 17, Schnaus 12. Malone and Ravellette each added six. Schnaus led all rebounders with 16.
Fuess led Norwell with 16. Fuelling had 15 points and tied a 3A state finals record with seven steals. Rosswurm added 14, Hubble eight (along with a game-high four blocks), Johnson four, and Haley Green two.
The Titans’ Malone won the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award.
