All good things must come to an end, or so the saying goes. So it is that after an unbelievable run of perfection over the last five years, Long Beach Poly’s streak of 23 straight wins in the state tournament and four consecutive state titles has come to an end. The Division 1 state title that had grown so comfortable at 1600 Atlantic will instead reside in Oak Ridge, after they defeated the Jackrabbits 55-42 in Bakersfield in the final game of the season.
Things started auspiciously enough, as Poly worked the ball inside to Sheila Boykin on their first possession, got a three from Destiny King shortly thereafter, another from Brittany Wilson on their next possession, and a transition bucket from Ariya Crook-Williams. They scored in every way they were capable of…and then, abruptly, the offense fell out of rhythm. Poly was 5-10 in the first quarter but wouldn’t shoot better than 33% in a period for the rest of the game, going 0-13 from beyond the arc and 14-48 from the field.
Meanwhile, as Poly’s offense lost their rhythm, Oak Ridge’s Sara James turned it on. Poly coach Carl Buggs (who last week called James the “real deal”) said after the game that his team had never faced a player like James in the state final before. Tall and athletic, she scored inside, she scored on the run, and she knocked down a three as well—she scored twenty points in the first half, and single-handedly took the game over in the second quarter. Junior Tajanae Winston, not known for being Poly’s takeover scorer, was the only Rabbit to hit a field goal in the second quarter (she finished with a team leading 13 points). She kept Poly in it, but as everyone else was missing shots and James was slashing and drawing fouls, the Rabbits fell behind. They trailed 29-23 at halftime.
Winston, Ta’Nitra Byrd and Wilson all had big plays in the third to narrow the gap, but Wilson’s biggest play was nullified by the refs; after a steal from James, she ran back down the court and scored a layup, drawing contact and a whistle for what appeared to be an and-one. If she’d converted the free throw it would have made it a one-point game; instead, there was not to be a free throw, or a bucket. The referee whistled a charge on Wilson, and Poly went into the fourth quarter down 38-34, with momentum hovering between the two benches.
Byrd scored four quick ones, and Boykin got her second basket in the fourth to tie the game at 40 with five minutes to go. That’s when the wheels fell off. Poly shot just 2-12 in the fourth quarter, and wouldn’t make another field goal for the rest of the game, throwing up off-target shots as the Trojans steadily marched out on an 11-0 run, finishing the game on a 15-2 tear, ten of those points from the charity stripe. Among the shots that fell was Dakota McLarnan’s fourth three-pointer of the game, trying the state championship record.
After the game, Buggs said it was simple. “We just had a bad game…it was just a bad shooting day. They mixed their looks up, made us hesitate a little; when you do that you get out of rhythm…we missed some shots that we normally make.” It wasn’t just shooting either; the Rabbits committed 19 turnovers, including a number of traveling violations in the third quarter, and just generally looked…off. With a 23-game state winning streak coming into Saturday, however, it may be more surprising that an off-game hadn’t cost them a victory sometime in the prior half-decade than it is that it sunk them against Oak Ridge.
“We just had a bad game,” echoed senior Brittany Wilson, shaking her head as her teammates nodded their agreement.
“We won four in a row,” said Buggs. “It would have been nice to have won five and made history, but it didn’t happen…that’s part of life.”
Of course, the team graduates a terrific senior class with Thaddesia Southall, Ashley Wilson (neither of whom played due to knee injuries), Brittany Wilson, Ta’Nitra Byrd, and Jaz Shirley leaving; but they also return four starters from Saturday, in Crook-Williams, Boykin, Winston, and King. And as much as failure and disappointment can be part of life (and sports), so is the chance to start over. In other words: all good things must come to an end. That doesn’t mean they can’t start over again.