- March 28, 2024
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The Father Lopez girls basketball team won the Class 3A State Championship after hitting its free throws in the game's closing seconds.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Free throws, despite their name, aren’t free. But 15 of them can get you a ring.
The Father Lopez girls basketball team won the Class 3A State Championship Feb. 21, in a 44-40 win over Miami Country Day in Lakeland.
The Green Wave made 15 of 17 free throws (88.2%) in the game, including four free throws in the final 22.9 seconds. Miami Country Day only made eight of its 16 total free throws.
The two biggest free throws of the game came from Simone Brown, who stood at the line with 5.9 seconds remaining and the chance to send the Spartans to the bus.
“I knew that I could help my team win,” Brown said. “So, I looked at the clock, it was 42-40, and I knew that if I made these two free throws, we win. I get a ring. We get a championship, a state championship. ... So I just went up there and made my free throws.”
Senior Ashley Folsom led the Green Wave with 18 points and 10 rebounds, later being named the Father Lopez Most Valuable Player of the game. Brown scored 17 points with seven rebounds.
But before Brown took to the free-throw line, senior Shannon Cranshaw, with 22.9 seconds left in the game and the Green Wave leading 40-38, as the Father Lopez student section chanted her name, hit two free throws of her own.
“There’s always pressure in moments like that, but I think, with all the training I’ve put in and the practices I’ve been through, I mean, you live for moments like that, ” Cranshaw said. “You live to win for your team, when you need it most.”
Cranshaw, who averaged 21.3 points per game through the regional tournament, scored just seven points in the State Championship game and committed 10 turnovers. As a team, the Green Wave turned the ball over 21 times.
“Obviously, I didn’t have my best offensive game, but God was with me with those free throws, and I willed them in,” Cranshaw said. “And I’m just so glad that they went in.”
The turnovers led to Father Lopez trailing for most of the game, including after the first quarter, second quarter and third quarter.
But the Green Wave outscored Miami Country Day 17-10 in the fourth quarter, in part, head coach Brad Ridenour said, because his team started to run its offense the way it wanted, instead of letting the Spartans dictate the game like they did in the first half.
“Especially in the last five, six minutes, we ran our stuff (and) we got what we wanted,” he said. “We knew, with those girls, I mean, they’ve been money from the line all year long.”
On the night, Brown, Cranshaw and Folsom were a combined 15 of 15 from the free throw line. Each of the three seniors shot over 70% for the year.
“We kept our composure at the end, especially,” Folsom said. “I mean, everybody wanted it. So I felt like we wanted it more, basically.”