On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa - Big Game Buchanan Goes Out in a Big Way

On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa
Richmond (Mar. 15, 2010) - Kelsey Buchanan and the Freedom High School girls basketball team ended a brilliant four-year run Saturday night in a big way, naturally, bringing home a second straight Virginia High School League state title with a big 68-44 win over Spotswood in the Division 4 finals.

For Buchanan, at 6-foot-3 almost always the biggest player on the floor, she had her usual big night as the Delaware-bound senior always seems to play her best in big games and in the win Saturday at VCU's Siegel Center she came within one block of a triple-double, finishing with 25 points on 11 of 14 shooting, 16 rebonds and nine blocks.

As the games became more important in the postseason, Buchanan and the Eagles (21-5) got better and better. Having survived a bruising, 49-40, win over Dulles District rival Loudoun County in the Region II semifinals, Freedom ran by their next four opponents by an average margin of victory of 26 points per game: 62-33 over Liberty, 75-41 over Courtland, 44-27 over Turner Ashby and finally the 68-44 win over Spotswood.

With Buchanan and fellow senior Brittani Poindexter and juniors Dionna Scott and Kim Koditek and sophomore Alexis Mayo all returning from last year's Division 3 state title team and the return of NCAA Division I caliber point guard Jessica Escorza for her senior season along with out of state transfer, 6-footer Jasmine Merritt, it was the Eagles state title to lose and the team under coach Jason Eldredge kept at the task at hand.

Spotswood wanted to run with Freedom and that is hard to do, as Liberty found in the Region II finals, and the Trailblazers after a scrappy start that left the game tied, 6-6, couldn't score in the final 4:48 of the first quarter as Freedom went on a 9-0 run to take control of the contest.

Mayo started the run with back-to-back jumpers, the first off an assist from Buchanan and the second came after a block by Buchanan created a fastbreak orchestrated by Escorza, the 6-foot point guard that returned to the Eagles nest after two years playing for private schools. Eldredge went to his bench but Spotswood still wasn't able to score Buchanan prevented anything easy in the paint. Escorza, who will play at Wofford next year, hit a 3-pointer to make it 13-6 with 50 seconds left in the quarter then Buchanan scored with 19 seconds left for a 15-6 margin.

Spotswood scored on a three-point play by Brianna Mitchell(team-high 13 points) early in the second but Buchanan snagged a missed 3-point attempt on the offensive end for a put-back to make it 17-9. After a Scott free throw, Escorza turned a steal into a layin and the Eagles were up 20-9 and would maintain a double digit lead the rest of the way.

With the Trailblazzers shooting just 5 of 25 in the first half with 10 turnovers, Freedom was able to take a 30-16 lead into the half.

Even foul trouble for Escorza (11 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds) and Scott (12 points, 7 rebounds) could not slow down the Freedom march to a second straight title. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, somebody in the Freedom family was already cracking the seal on a fresh batch of "Back-to-Back" black t-shirts that commemorated an accomplishment that has never been done in Loudoun basketball history -- back-to-back state title.

In fact, prior to last season, Loudoun had never taken a state title in basketball and now there are four state title trophy's housed in Loudoun -- Loudoun County girls from 2009 Division 4, Potomac Falls boys from Saturday in Division 4 and Freedom's twin titles.

Buchanan -- who as a freshman along with fellow freshman Escorza and then sophomore Meixandra Porter, helped turn a one-win, second-year program into a state power -- finished her prep career with authority. In three state playoff games this year, Buchanan went 32 of 52 from the field for 61.5 percent and averaged 24.7 points per game with 18.0 rebounds per game and 5.3 blocks per game. Those state numbers were an improvement on her 5-game playoff totals of 23.0 points per game, 16.8 rebounds and 4.8 blocks.

The bigger the game, the bigger Buchanan's performance. In all she helped put Freedom in the record books, unofficially setting (the official state quarterfinal boxes are still being researched) VHSL AA records for rebounds (148) and blocks (21) in a three-game tournament, eclipsing Charlottesville's 1993 run of 143 rebounds and 19 blocks.

Freedom and Buchanan's accomplishments may stand for many years and if they are ever to be broken by another Loudoun girls basketball team it will surely take a big-time effort.