CLEVELAND -- Sophomore Welline Tere calmly hit the biggest free throws in her career. Her two free throws Friday night helped the John Hay girls basketball team beat East Tech, 66-63, in the 42nd Senate City Championship at East Tech.
The victory gives the Hornets their first back-to-back city titles since 1994 and 1995. Both of these victories came against East Tech.
“This victory results from the hard work these guys put in,” said John Hay coach Fred Howry, who will be stepping down after this season. “I wanted to leave this program better than I came. We have been in the Senate Title game for the last four years. And all of them has been against East Tech. We lost the first two, now we won the last two.”
The Hornets (13-0 Senate, 15-7 overall) fought back from a 12-point first-half deficit. They trailed 39-27 and they missed 12 free throws.
However, in the third quarter, they stayed the course. The Hornets continued to be aggressive by applying pressure to the Golden Scarabs guards. That allowed them to score the first 12 points to tie the game at 39 with just about three minutes into the quarter. Six of those points were scored by another sophomore Amaya Maxie. Maxie had a game high of 27 points.
“We knew we had to be very aggressive. We are playing in their gym and we knew if we stayed with the game plan that we would be successful,” said Maxie.
The game was moved from East High to East Tech because East High's bleachers were not working properly. John Hay plays its home games at East High, because its gym is under repair.
The Hornets took their first lead of the game at 49-48 on lay-up by the league’s MVP Laurene Tere with two minutes left. They led after three, 51-48. Laurene Tere, a senior, finished with 22 points.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Golden Scarabs had issues from the charity stripe. They missed eight of them. With the scored tied at 57, they missed four consecutive shots. A lay-up by Laurene Tere followed by a free throw by Maxie, the Hornets took a 60-57 lead with 3:21 left.
The Golden Scarabs (12-2, 14-7) would take back the lead at 61-60 on a mid-range jumper by Jada Ward.
The Hornets grabbed back the lead at 62-61 on a layup by Sharia Hill with 2:18 to go.
Ward then miss two consecutive free throws on the next trip down. But the Hornets will take another advantage on that on as Maxie’s jumper gave the Hornets a 64-61 lead with 1:28 left.
Johnesha Brown and Jada Malone each had 16 points for the Golden Scarabs, who was seven for 18 from the free throw line.
“Turnovers, free-throws and not enough experience. We were in the game, but when young you are going to have these three elements,” said Melvin Burke.
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