Driving the baseline Tuesday night in the City Title Game, McNamara’s Tierra Thomas challenged H.D. Woodson center Jeniece Johnson. Bad idea. As Thomas rose and released her jump shot, the 6-foot-5 Johnson, standing flat-footed, spiked the ball to the floor.
And so it went at the Verizon Center as Johnson and the Lady Warriors blocked McNamara’s path to the championship, winning their first City Title in 16 years, 61-55.
Behind the play of Johnson (14 points, 14 rebounds, 6 blocks) and guards Patrice Johnson (12 points, 7 rebounds) and Bernisha Pinkett (14 points), Woodson won the title after failing the last two seasons and eight times since 1994. It was just the third title for a D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association champion over its counterpart from the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference since Woodson’s triumph in 1992.
“I did not want to feel that feeling again,” said sophomore guard Ronika Ransford (11 points). “Everybody was passionate. None of the players from last year’s team wanted to go through that emotional stress again.”
After losses to Good Counsel in 2006 and Holy Cross last year, Woodson (26-5) was determined. The score was tied before Woodson closed the third period with seven straight points. Pinkett hit her third 3-pointer of the quarter, Ransford delivered a layup with a nifty spin move, and Patrice Johnson added a lay-in. After that, the closest McNamara (23-8) got was four points.
Ironically, Woodson made its decisive run with the North Carolina State-bound Jeniece Johnson on the bench in foul trouble. But she returned in the fourth quarter to provide a formidable last line of defense, the kind she showed on her flat-footed block.
“I’m used that, kind of,” said Johnson. “I was like, ‘Wow.’ I thought I was gonna get a foul.”
