Patience Ashaolu hit a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left to give West Allegheny its first ever section title.
McDONALD — As the shot left Patience Ashaolu’s fingertips, her West Allegheny teammates all reacted in different ways.
Ashley Seamon let instinct take over as she raced to the basket for a potential rebound. Senior guard Melina Lynn briefly raised her hands to her head and uttered a prayer before she followed Seamon to the basket.
But Ashaolu and coach Reggie Wells had no doubt. Act as ye have faith, and faith shall be granted to you.
“I got the ball, saw an opening and I just shot it,” Ashaolu said. “It just went in.”
Ashaolu’s 3-pointer swished through the net with 1.5 seconds left to give West Allegheny a 58-55 win over South Fayette to clinch a share of the Section 1-5A title. It’s the first section title in program history, and the Indians can claim sole possession of the crown with a win over Lincoln Park on Monday.
“I never knew how this felt,” Lynn said. “I’m just incredibly proud of our girls and our team for how hard we’ve worked.”
“We’ll always be a piece of history,” Seamon added. “That first year up on that banner – that’s our banner.”
West Allegheny almost let the title slip away. South Fayette, the 2016 WPIAL Class 4A champion, held a 50-41 lead at the end of the third quarter and maintained a multiple possession lead through the first four minutes of the final frame.
But West Allegheny trimmed the deficit to 55-52 when Grace Faulk scored on a layup and foul shot with 2:36 left. Faulk, the game’s leading scorer with 18 points, fouled out with 1:47 left and South Fayette had a chance to take the lead back. But Skylar Aitken missed the front-end of a free throw, and Seamon pulled down the rebound.
As West Allegheny held the ball for the final 1:28, Wells used multiple timeouts to preserve possession and reorganize his team. He called one last timeout with 28 seconds left for a final play, but it still didn’t go as planned.
“We wanted to take a good shot,” Wells said. “It was a little shaky there for a while, and we had to use a couple timeouts. But whatever good shot we got, we were going to take it.”
The ball landed in Ashaolu’s hands in the far corner, and with the South Fayette student section counting down the seconds in her ear and a defender rushing her, she let the shot fly.
“There was no doubt about it,” Wells said with a smile.”
West Allegheny was 5-16 in the year prior to Wells being hired. Over the past four years, the team has steadily progressed to a section champion. Now it’ll have a chance to make a run in the postseason.
“I think experience is one of the most important things you can have as an athlete. We have a coach who has experience in winning,” Seamon said. “Now that we have this foundation of winning big games in the regular season, I think we’ll be able to carry this momentum into the playoffs.”