This time, hot-shooting Sidwell girls rout St. John's for DCSAA title
All Tamika Dudley could do was shrug and smile.
Standing on the sideline at George Washington's Smith Center in the third quarter of Sunday night's D.C. State Athletic Association Class AA girls' basketball title game, the Sidwell Friends coach had just watched junior Ava Yoon's corner three-pointer ricochet off the top of the backboard and swish improbably through the net.
'It seemed like tonight everything wanted to fall our way,' Dudley said.
It was one of those nights for her hot-shooting Quakers, who closed their local schedule with a 72-44 rout of St. John's. Sidwell made 14 of 28 three-pointers to secure the program's second state title in three years.
Sunday's win avenged a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Cadets in last year's championship game. Sidwell junior Jordyn Jackson, a five-star recruit, led all scorers with 27 points, which was enough to earn championship game MVP honors.
'I feel extremely grateful. I'm just so happy to be in this space and that I was able to win this for my teammates and my coaches,' she said. 'The first quarter was a little bit shaky, but we definitely got it going, and after that everything went well.'
In the third quarter, Sidwell (27-3) overwhelmed St. John's (26-6), which hung around in the first half thanks to a strong start by junior Morgan Stewart. The Quakers stifled the Cadets with a relentless press to start the second half, and the game quickly turned into a blowout. Sidwell outscored St. John's 26-10 in the third, ballooning its 10-point lead to 26.
Yoon and junior Autumn Fleary made four three-pointers apiece, and Jackson knocked down three. Jackson spurred the third-quarter surge with a driving layup, which she followed later with a smooth midrange jumper.
'I really got going, and I think that energy spreads to my teammates,' Jackson said. 'After that, everybody went off.'
Just one week after downing Bullis in the Independent School League championship game, the Quakers checked another box during a torrid late-season stretch. After enduring shooting struggles during the regular season, Dudley's team rounded into form come playoff time — Friday's semifinal victory over Maret was its seventh consecutive win.
'We went through a moment in the regular season where we couldn't make a shot [and] went into a little bit of a slump,' Dudley said. 'I'm happy that we went through that adversity at the right time, and the kids bounced back.'
With no seniors to turn to following the graduation of All-Met first-team picks Kendall Dudley and Zania Socka-Nguemen, a talented junior class lifted the Quakers back to Sunday's title game. While some of those players didn't contribute substantial minutes to last year's team, most remembered the feeling of walking off the court with their state title hopes dashed in painful fashion.
'I said, 'Listen, we were here 365 days ago, and we didn't get the job done,'' Dudley said she told her players before the game. 'So I kept telling them today, 'Don't leave with regret — leave it all on the floor.' ... They did a phenomenal job of that tonight.'
This year, it was the Quakers' turn to laugh, hug and cry with one another in celebration of a state title. One by one, they ascended a ladder and snipped off a piece of the net — and Dudley capped the revelry by swinging what remained of it over her head.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
For SGA and Andrew Nembhard, NBA Finals isn't about ‘making friends' — or keeping them
OKLAHOMA CITY — The zen of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander felt authentic as he revisited the squandering of his Thunder's NBA Finals debut. A missed opportunity punctuated by the easy money he left on the table with his final shot. But SGA had some 38 hours to sit with it, filter it through his processor. He emerged for interviews Saturday with his on-brand serenity and ready to give answers. Calmly and clearly. Advertisement 'Yeah, they are easy to put away now,' he said after Oklahoma City's practice at Paycom Center. 'There was a time in my career where it wasn't, and you grow and learn through that. I've just grown to learn, like, you control what you can control. I shot the ball, I missed it. It's written in history. There's nothing I can do now. That is a missed shot, and all I can do is try to be better the next shot. That's what I focus on. That's my mindset. At this point, it's like second nature.' Yet another second nature of Gilgeous-Alexander also exists. It is just as on-brand as his macro perspective. A nature that embraces friction of competition. A nature that heightens focus to course correct after losses or subpar games. A nature that absolutely hated getting cooked in crunchtime of the NBA Finals by his lil bro. SGA didn't put away that part. Andrew Nembhard defended the NBA MVP with his chest out and laced his countryman with a 'tween-cross-'tween-cross into a stepback 3. A clutch basket worthy of a Filayyy recap on Instagram. 'Yeah, he's a competitor,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'He's a winner. Plays the game the right way on both ends of the floor. Really good player. Yeah, he's a winner for sure. No doubt.' Nope. Not falling for the banana in the tailpipe. The overwhelming expectation for Game 2 is a Gilgeous-Alexander retort. Not that he played poorly. But he needed 30 shots to get 38 points and missed the potential game-clincher that opened the door for Tyrese Haliburton's heroics in Game 1. That alone is perhaps enough to provoke the NBA MVP to raise his level. Be more efficient. More clutch. And Nembhard is extra motivation. Because no one knows better than SGA how relentless a competitor Nembhard is, and how much better his game is when his confidence is peaking. And during the Pacers' late rally, Nembhard walked with the sway of the coldest villain. Minutes before he put Gilgeous-Alexander in a mixer, Nembhard aggressively bodied his Canadian National Team cohort. On the way to the ref, to dispute the foul, Nembhard walked through the shoulder of SGA, uninterested in avoiding contact. SGA replied with a light shove, pushing the Pacers guard off him. Then, with SGA at the free-throw line, Nembhard walked conspicuously close, dishing another glancing nudge as he walked past. Advertisement 'Nothing more than two guys wanting to win,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'No malicious intent behind it, just wanting to win.' The similar paths of these two young men make for a heart-warming tale of storge love. Gilgeous-Alexander grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. Nembhard was raised in Vaughan, about 45 minutes away. They developed their games well enough to finish high school in the United States. Both played for major programs in college — SGA one year at Kentucky and Nembhard two years at Florida before two years at Gonzaga. Both won a bronze medal for Canada together. Both are making their first NBA Finals simultaneously. They've pushed each other to get here. 'I'm not too worried about making friends out there,' Nembhard said Saturday. 'So whatever happens, happens in that sense.' The storge love is on hold. Because Nembhard is coming. 'This is the ultimate challenge, a guy like him who is the MVP,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of SGA. 'He's just so skilled, so quick, bigger than you think. Everybody talks about the lethal midrange, but he makes 3s easily, too. He lives at the free-throw line. So there's no breaks. There's no breaks. But Drew is one of these guys that he has an equal focus on the defensive end as the offensive end, and that's — it's a bit rare with today's players.' This is how Nembhard is wired. He wants to win, and he'll go through anybody in pursuit. Even his boy. Especially his boy. His friendship with SGA only makes him more qualified to be a nemesis. Nembhard, 18 months younger, has been chasing SGA for the better part of a decade. When they were coming up, SGA was the prodigy, the touted talent expected to make it. They first teamed up with Canada's Junior Academy. SGA was top-ranked, and Nembhard wasn't all. His name didn't join the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander and RJ Barrett. Advertisement Nembhard is here because of the chip on his shoulder. He establishes his name by taking on giants. He was a rookie when he went into Steph Curry's house and showed up the legend. In last year's first-round series in Milwaukee, Nembhard stood up to Bobby Portis, who once broke his teammate's jaw. Nembhard issued the first shove. Now he's got the MVP and the big, bad Thunder in his sights. He loves this. He's too smart to say it out loud. But his swagger on the court, the look in his eyes when he talks, his reputation, it betrays an unbothered approach. 'I'm not really too worried about the individual battle,' Nembhard said. 'I'm not focusing on it. It's a team job to stop him. And we know that. … There's a name on every team in this league. … Third-string guys in the NBA can give you 25 on any night if you're relaxed and not being ready to play.' Yeah. OK, Drew. Just another foe. Got it. Gilgeous-Alexander knows better. Because he knows well. He understands as much as anybody who he's dealing with in this series. He'll require the poise of a champion to maintain the calming perspective he shared, to not make this about getting his lick back or devolve into some one-on-one battle. He's too good to bite on the bait. Indiana is varying the coverages on him. The Pacers appear to be conceding outside shots, prompting Gilgeous-Alexander to drive into the set defense. They've also picked him up out high on the pick-and-roll, giving space for the defense to recover after the screen. Indiana is not yet taking the ball out of his hands with aggressive traps and blitzes. Though a box-and-1 isn't above Carlisle, the results from Game 1 seemed to justify the Pacers' approach. High-volume Gilgeous-Alexander seems to limit his teammates' rhythm. But down the stretch, when the game was close, the Pacers were more than fine throwing Nembhard on SGA and letting him handle it. Nembhard is fine with it, too. Advertisement And we know Gilgeous-Alexander. We've seen enough. His second nature is also to embrace the competition. He inhales the smoke, as they say. He just talks trash with minimal words and maybe a cryptic social media post. He just declares his supremacy through brilliance and a tangible, if unspoken, bravado. And so far in these playoffs, defeats have prompted a response from SGA. In the Thunder's first loss of the postseason, Game 1 in the second round against the Denver Nuggets, he had 33 points on 26 shots. In Game 2, he had 34 points on 11-for-13 shooting. He had 18 in the Game 3 loss to Denver and 25 in the Game 4 win. He followed his 32 in the Game 6 loss with 35 in Game 7. Against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals, SGA was 4-for-13 in a blowout loss in Game 3. But in Game 4, he dropped 40. Now, he's on the biggest stage of his life, coming off a loss that reverberated around the globe. His team is facing a relative must-win game. And his brother from another, who's driven to prove himself, took Round 1. 'I always try to be aggressive and I never, like, predetermine it,' SGA said. 'I always, like, just let the game tell me what to do. So I guess last game, I felt more often than not, I had a shot or a play that I could attack on more than in the past, and that's just the way it went. So the same thing will happen in Game 2. I will read the defense, and I will play off my feeling and my instincts, and if it's calling for me to shoot or if it's calling me to pass, is what I will decide to do.' Round 2 on deck. (Photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Andrew Nembhard: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
NBC Sports
4 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Jordan Love "can't wait" to face Aaron Rodgers when Packers play Steelers
The Packers visit the Steelers on Sunday Night Football in Week Eight, and Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love already has his meeting with Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers circled on his calendar. 'It's going to be fun. It's going to be awesome. I'm excited for it,' Love told Jason Wilde of 'I can't wait to be on different sides, meeting up, and I know we'll talk pre-game, things like that. And hopefully we can exchange jerseys after.' Green Bay drafted Love in the first round in 2020, and Love stood on the sideline and watched as Rodgers had MVP seasons in both 2020 and 2021. But after three years as Rodgers' backup, Love got to become the Packers' starter when Rodgers was traded to the Jets in 2023. It was similar to Rodgers' own experience backing up Brett Favre for his first three NFL seasons. 'I appreciate definitely the way A-Rod handled being in that situation, and I think a big part of it — which he told me — was he knew how it was for him being in that same position, and the things that he went through and the way the situation might've been handled [differently],' Love said. 'I think his perspective was, 'I'm trying to go about this a little bit differently,' which I think was awesome. In my time with A-Rod, we had a great relationship. It was awesome being in the same room with him, being able to learn. He was amazing with everything. And I definitely appreciate the way he handled everything on the outside with obviously him leaving and me taking over, and he's been very supportive of me [since]. It definitely helped with some of the negativity that might've come with that. But A-Rod handled it like a pro and did very right by me.' Love said he thinks Rodgers will do well in Pittsburgh. 'I was excited for A-Rod. I don't think I was too surprised,' Love said. 'I feel like there were a lot of rumors going on throughout the whole offseason about him going to the Steelers. I was excited for him, that he was obviously coming back and going to be playing. There were also some rumors that he might be done, so just knowing he's going to keep playing, that's pretty awesome.' But in Week Eight, Love is hoping to out-play Rodgers and earn the Packers a win over their longtime franchise quarterback.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ravens Urged To Sign Lamar Jackson To Mega-Extension
Ravens Urged To Sign Lamar Jackson To Mega-Extension originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Baltimore Ravens are one of the few teams in football that would not trade their quarterback for anything. Lamar Jackson doesn't just make the Ravens perennial contenders. He's the engine of the offense and the biggest factor in forging Baltimore's identity. Advertisement He's also eligible for an extension, and after several quarterbacks have separated Jackson from the top of the market. Jackson signed a five-year, $260 million contract that temporarily made him the sport's highest-paid player. By average annual value, he now ranks 10th. Subsequently, a new deal could be signed before the season, rightfully putting him amongst the best-compensated passers in the NFL. NFL Media recently urged the Ravens to sign Jackson to a massive extension, ranking him as the player most deserving of a raise. 'Jackson and Patrick Mahomes could probably hold a spot on top of this list forever -- or at least for as long as they are playing football, no matter what their game checks look like,' Tom Blair wrote. 'How much is too much to pay a walking, talking ticket to Super Bowl contention?' Advertisement Jackson almost won his third MVP in 2024 (he took home first-team All-Pro recognition), and it may have been his best season. In terms of passing production, it was easily his most impressive campaign. Jackson logged his first 4,000-yard season in 2024. He led the NFL in touchdown percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating, and quarterback rating. His athleticism under center is unparalleled, making Baltimore's ground game as dangerous as its aerial attack. No passer has more gravity, giving him a skill set only constrained by market tradition and the salary cap. 'Every team is chasing exactly this kind of superpowered generational QB, but most will never get close to rostering one. That feverish pursuit has helped inflate the quarterback market to the point that, somewhat ludicrously, nine signal-callers are paid more per year than the two-time MVP. Advertisement 'The game of Highest-Paid-Player Hot Potato often, of course, seems to be driven more by timing than merit, but this discrepancy is begging to be corrected with a new deal for one of the top talents in football. Hopefully, Baltimore's willingness to publicly discuss the topic is a sign that balance will be restored soon -- and with fewer bumps on the road to resolution than we saw last time.' If there were any doubts about Jackson's worthiness the last time around, he obliterated them with back-to-back MVP-caliber campaigns. Jackson has shown no signs of slowing down, and as he grows into one of the game's best passers, Baltimore can feel even more confident in ensuring he is around for as long as possible. It's only a matter of time before the Ravens make Jackson the highest-paid player in the sport for the second time. Related: Lamar Jackson Is Too Good To Lead NFL in Passing Related: Ravens Won't Play Games With Potential Lamar Jackson Extension This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
