Daily Archives: January 16, 2013

(Byfield) The Governor’s Academy girls held on down the stretch and eked out a, 46-44, win over Tabor Academy on Wednesday afternoon at GA.

The Govs (7-3) made a 46-44 advantage stand up through three possessions by Tabor (7-4) in the final 1 ½ minutes.

The first two tense possessions ended with Seawolves’ turnovers.  The game-on-the-line last one ended with a missed shot by Tabor’s Sarah Kourtesis with Kat Fogarty running at her. The resulting rebound led to a wild scramble as the final buzzer sounded.

Kat Fogarty (25 points) was terrific for the Govs despite drawing plenty of attention from the Seawolves defenders in a full-game performance.

6-1 Kat hit three 3’s and made 10-of-11 free throws.  She will be playing for Division 1 Marist in 2013-14.

Kat’s points were one thing but her rebounding, passing, and shot blocking were eye-catchers as well.  I was equally impressed with her part in finding open spots where she could receive outlet passes during Tabor’s relentless pressure.

What surprised me reviewing the play-by-play from this game was that Kat Fogarty did not score a single point over the final nine minutes of the game!  She made two free throws with nine minutes left to end Tabor’s eight-straight run and give GA a 37-36 edge.

The final nine Govs’ points were produced by the Ham sisters (Jackie and Kendall) and Hayley Newhall.

After a Gia Doonan (nine points) layup, Jackie Ham (nine points) answered with a layup of her own.  Sister Kendall converted a rebound before Aly Griffin answered with a driving layup.  This action put the score at 41-40 in favor of the Govs with five minutes left.

Next we watched the Ham sisters, in reverse order, tally two more baskets.  Kendall’s was a layup in the half court.  Jackie’s was a full-court sprint.  Sarah Kourtesis responded with a layup to make this a 45-42 game with 2:48 to be played.

Hayley Newhall made one of two free throws with 1:46 to go and not long after that Anel Ethenage (seven points) tallied Tabor’s last basket with a jumper in the lane.

To say that the final 1 ½ minutes were hectic is putting it mildly.  Not only did Tabor turn the ball over on their first two possessions but the home team did the same thing.

After the second turnover by the visitors from Marion, Jackie Ham was at the free throw line with 11.7 seconds left with the chance to build on the Govs’ two-point lead.  She missed both and that led to a final shot for Tabor that could have sent this game into overtime.

The Seawolves held a 6-4 lead after five minutes before Kat Fogarty keyed an 18-1 run over the next seven minutes.  Kat put together twelve straight points in the GA surge of good offense including two 3’s in a row.

Tabor’s lone point came from Lydia Caputi.  The Seawolves registered (by my count) nine turnovers during this segment and found themselves down, 22-7.

Tabor was down but definitely not out…too many good athletes.  Over the next 10 ½ minutes of playing time, stretching into the second half, the Seawolves climbed all the way back outscoring GA, 29-13, and pulled in front, 36-35, to set up an exciting final ten minutes.

Tabor was the Class A New England champion in 2011.

Governor’s Academy was 14-10 last season.

The two teams played at Tabor last year where the Seawolves won, 62-51.

Kat Fogarty has led the ISL (Independent School League) in scoring during the past two seasons.  She reached 1000 points last season.

Covering prep school games can be difficult and this one was especially so.  I have to have names and numbers of players to identify players that turn up in the pictures I take.  Neither school in this game offered any roster help on their websites and neither school had a typed roster at the site to use or at least look at and copy.  I ended up looking at a scorebook that was tough to read on some of the Tabor names.  The retired teacher in me wants to spell names correctly.

Governor’s Academy boxscore

Tabor Academy boxscore

(The pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)