Girls Basketball: Season Ends With Two-Point Loss

A last-second steal by McLean’s Caroline Gray sealed a 48-46 victory for the Highlanders over South Lakes in the first round of the Liberty District tournament.

Both McLean and South Lakes seemed to have an answer for each other in a game that wasn’t decided until the last few seconds.

“We played extremely hard,” said Seahawks coach Christy Winters-Scott. “At times our focus was waning a bit. But I thought that everyone that came in played with everything they had, and that was our goal coming in.”

South Lakes' senior Ashlei Sutton led the Seahawks with a phenomenal second- half performance. Sutton ended up leading all scorers with 14 points.

“I thought she had an amazing game,” said Scott of Sutton. “She challenged her young teammates not to hang their head and cry, but instead to get back in the gym and prepare for next year.

“We had 12 freshmen and sophomores that played with us today out of the 15 kids,” said Scott. “Sutton had that sense of urgency, that’s the example that we need all the time, not just from our seniors. You don’t have to be a senior to play that hard.”

Just as the Highlanders began to pull away, Sutton came alive early in the fourth quarter to help keep the Seahawks in the game.

“A six-point lead isn’t safe with a team like that. An eight-point lead isn’t safe with a team like that with the way they run and can score,” O’Brien said. “Ashlei Sutton is a heck of a player that can break down anybody one on one.

However, it was McLean’s inside presence, led by sophomore Lexi Slotkoff, that propelled the Highlanders to a win. Slotkoff scored 13 points despite good defense from the Seahawks’ 6-foot-4-inch freshman, Abigail Rendle.