Quakers bounce back from ISL letdown and make it look easy
SIDWELL FRIENDS 68, ST. JOHN’S 49
Jadyn Donovan tried to get comfortable in her spot on the bench, draping her long arms across the black leather seat backs. The Sidwell Friends guard had just been subbed out of Sunday’s D.C. State Athletic Association Class AA championship game, and with two minutes left and the Quakers leading St. John’s by double digits, the crowd had given her a farewell ovation.
But the senior didn’t want to go out like that. After a minute or two of soaking up the moment, Donovan walked up to Coach Tamika Dudley and asked to be put back in the game for the final 30 seconds.
“I wanted to be on the floor — me and the rest of the seniors,” Donovan said. “I started here with them, and I wanted to go out with them.”
At the final buzzer of a 68- 49 victory, she stood at midcourt with her arms out wide, waiting for a stream of teammates to join her on the floor at George Washington’s Smith Center.
“It’s just a rush of joy in the final moment,” fellow senior Khia Miller said. “We’ve built an amazing program here over the last few years. I’m just so happy to be here in this moment again.”
The win provided back-toback state titles for a Sidwell program that has been at the center of the local girls’ game in recent seasons. A dominant regular season earned the Quakers half of their conference crown, but they were upset by Georgetown Visitation in the Independent School League tournament last weekend.
Upon review, Dudley said the team was most disappointed in its defense from that loss and spent a few days focused on turning up the intensity on that end. When it began state tournament play a few days later, the Quakers (28-3) aimed to close the season playing at the best of their ability.
“We did not dig deep enough in that [ Visitation] game,” Miller said. “We didn’t want that one enough. After watching some film and working on some things, we wanted it more today.”
St. John’s, coming off its second consecutive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title, offered Sidwell a formidable championship game opponent. And yet the Quakers led for nearly the entirety of the afternoon, using a physical and effective 2-2-1 press to keep the Cadets at bay. The Quakers held St. John’s to 30 percent shooting.
On the other end, junior guard Leah Harmon finished with a team-high 21 points, and Donovan, who took home game MVP honors, added 20.
“We came in with a great mind-set today,” Donovan said. “We wanted to get this done for each other, not for anyone else.”