Girls Basketball: Taft loses heartbreaker
The Taft of Woodland Hills girls basketball team was so close to victory on Thursday in a City Section semifinal game against Narbonne of Harbor City it thought it was going back to the Div. I City Section championship game after coming up short against Chatsworth last year.
The Gauchos had other ideas as they used a buzzer beating layup from Atoe Jackson to send the game into overtime and withstood the Toredors in the extra four minute period for a 50-47 upset victory.
"I don't know what it feels like to be stabbed in the heart but if I could imagine it I think it feels something like this right now," Taft's UNLV-bound senior guard Rmanii Haynes said.
Taft took a 44-42 lead with seven seconds remaining in regulation when Haynes swopped in and stole the ball from Kimberly Pickett and raced down for a layup.
Narbonne called timeout and somehow scored when Tori Breshers broke free on the sideline, dribbled to the middle and found Jackson, who made a layup as the buzzer sounded.
"We got lost on defense there and a lot of other times," Taft coach Mark Drucker said.
In overtime, the Gauchos (22-9) went up by three points but Haynes drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner to tie game at 47-47 with 1:14 remaining.
However, Taft wouldn't score again and Narbonne received a free throw from Tailer Butler and two more from Jamesha Chapman to win it.
Haynes missed on a driving layup that would have given Taft a one-point lead after Butler's free throw and Skyy Lewis didn't even try for a 3-pointer at the end, inexplicably driving for a layup as the buzzer sounded.
