Experience wins out for Devils

Springbrook’s Taryn Christian scores game-winning basket in final seconds

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006

The expression ‘‘experience wins games” can be looked at as a cliché. The fact of the matter is that, for the most part, talent wins and the lack thereof loses, regardless of age or tenure.

However, in tight games, throw that all out the window. Experience can be deadly, and it was Friday night. Springbrook girls basketball senior Taryn Christian scored the game-winning basket with five seconds to go, and Paint Branch’s dynamic sophomore Tarik Hislop couldn’t convert two free throws just seconds later, as the Blue Devils squeaked past the Panthers, 44-43, Friday night.

‘‘It was a thriller,” said Springbrook coach Oliver Riggs Jr. ‘‘I have to give kudos to Paint Branch for the way they fought back. I told one of the coaches before the game that it was going to be a dogfight. That’s the way the cross-town rivalry is — it doesn’t matter who leads by what in the first half, it’s going to come down to the end. I just liked how when it came down to it, and we needed a basket, we got it.”

The Blue Devils (2-0) jumped out to the early lead, and extended it to a 16-point margin at one point of the second half. But Paint Branch used two precocious sophomores to get back in it. Center Khalilah Quigley dominated the middle in the second half, finishing with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while the point guard Hislop added 15 points and eight boards.

Their efforts rallied the Panthers to a one-point lead with 12 seconds to go. That left it in the hands of Christian, the Blue Devils’ leading scorer with 18.5 points per game through the team’s first two victories. Riggs called a low-offense isolation for her on the final possession, and Christian drove right into the middle for a running jumper that swished through with five ticks left to give her 17 points for the night and the lead back for Springbrook.

‘‘Taryn is very underrated,” Riggs said. ‘‘She leads us in scoring, assists and steals, and I don’t think she gets her due. I talk about her being a coach on the floor, but she’s also a big-time scorer.”

Immediately after the ball went through, Paint Branch inbounded the ball to Hislop, who drove the length of the floor before getting fouled with two seconds to go. Though she had played superb throughout the evening, she missed both, with Springbrook’s Ashley Moore grabbing the rebound on the second miss to secure the victory.

‘‘She was very distraught afterwards, but I reiterated to her, ‘You’ll be in this situations again’,” said Paint Branch coach Heather Podosek. ‘‘It’s the first time she’s been in that sort of win-loss situation. She’ll make more than she’ll miss.”