Priory girls find open Lane down the stretch in WBAL win

It was all Ila Lane down the stretch Tuesday as Priory pulled out a 49-45 victory over Sacred Heart Prep in a tightly-contested West Bay Athletic League game.

“We really needed that game,’’ said Priory coach Buck Matthews, whose team was coming off an overtime loss to Eastside in its WBAL opener.

Priory, 14 of 16 from the foul line, travels to play Notre Dame in Belmont at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Sacred Heart Prep (10-5, 1-2) led 41-39 with two minutes left. Lane, a 6-foot-4 senior headed to UC Santa Barbara, scored on the low post to tie the game at the 1:45 mark and did so again with 1:22 left to put the Panthers ahead.

Denise Stine scored for the Gators with a minute to go to bring them even. Priory (7-5, 1-1) went down low to Lane again and she responded with a hoop to make it 45-43 with 34 seconds left.

SHP called timeout, but Anna Barton stole the inbounds pass and passed to Aniyah Augmon for a bucket and a four-point lead that held up as the final margin.

Lane finished with 24 points, making 9 of 14 field-goal attempts and 6 of 6 from the foul line, and pulled down 15 rebounds, showing noticeable development from the earlier years of her high school career.

“She hasn’t reached her peak, still hasn’t scratched the surface,’’ Matthews said. “She’s become much more assertive, not the gentle giant any more. She’s become a lot more polished, can shoot the 3, which she never did before. Once she gets to UCSB I expect her to make an impact.

She’s a 4.0 student, I never had an issue with her. High character.’’

Charlotte Levison led Sacred Heart Prep with 16 points. Megan Norris scored 10.

“Bottom line we didn’t rebound well, we didn’t defend well, which is what we take pride in.’’ SHP coach Melanie Murphy said. “We were real stagnant.’’

Sacred Heart Prep travels down the street to Menlo School for a league contest at 6 p.m. Friday.

Click here for the full article...