On Tuesday, the Clarksburg Coyotes girls basketball team was on the doorstep of reaching the Maryland 4A Girls championship game. For the older teammates, returning to the title game has been their goal after losing the championship match in 2021.
All that was left was to defeat the No. 2 Charles H. Flowers Jaguars at Henry A. Wise High School in Upper Marlboro. But it wasn’t a junior or senior who would lead the Coyotes to the finale–it was freshman forward Destiny Turner, outscoring the Jaguars in the first half, 24-17.
“Destiny took over,” Coyotes Head Coach Sissy Natoli said. “She was so determined and what she did was she realized she needed to score. Because [the Jaguars were] very athletic and if we didn’t get a bucket earlier—two buckets early—it would have been a different kind of run. So we were trying to feed the hot hand and we kept on going.”
Natoli said she applauded the efforts of Turner’s teammates because “they all found her and continued to feed her, and she kept on scoring. She was amazing.”
A 17-point first half from Destiny Turner helped the Coyotes surge to a 15-point lead, 25-10. The biggest shot of them all was a buzzer-beating three-pointer two feet behind the arc on the wing. It stunned the Jaguars—and Destiny, too.
“I didn’t’ really think I was going to make it at first,” Turner said. “I was shocked when it went in.”
The freshman’s contributions didn’t stop in the second half and weren’t only on the scoreboard. In all, Turner concluded the semifinal game with 29 points and 19 rebounds, combating the uber-athletic Jaguars into housecats.
When the first half buzzer rang, the Coyotes would’ve appreciated continuing the game rather than heading to the locker room to disallow their Springdale opponents from regrouping. That would’ve been the better decision, too, as the third quarter saw the Jaguars pounce, putting together a 12-2 scoring run in only three minutes. Suddenly, the comfortable 24-point lead the Coyotes had generated had dwindled to 14, with Jaguars center Ava Redmond and forward Alana Joy combining for nine.
But then, the scoring stopped. For the final five minutes of the third quarter, the Jaguars were held scoreless. The Coyotes hounded Redmond, Joy and guard Faith Okonkulo, denying them the open looks and passing lanes.
“Five players, if you spread them out, they’re not as effective,” Natoli said. “When we allowed them to jump all over us with three players up top, that’s tough. That’s a lot of great pressure and [the Jaguars] did a wonderful job running their press. We were struggling to break it. But once we broke it, we were able to run the clock.”
Defensively, the Coyotes changed their lineup to combat the Jaguars’ offense, bringing senior guard Italia Jackman back into the starting rotation and playing more minutes.
“[Coach Natoli] wanted me to step up on defense,” Jackman said on getting the start. “So I played a lot of defense and stepped up on offense, even though I didn’t score a lot of points, I was able to assist my team.”
Jackman’s contributions may not have been shown on the stat sheet, but the scoreboard was an indicator as the final buzzer sounded. Clarksburg had won, 55-46.
Now, the Coyotes have returned to the state championship game, where they’ll face the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons in a rematch of the Montgomery County championship game. They’ll look to avenge their 59-54 loss to B-CC, where the Coyotes let a 17-point halftime lead slip in the fourth quarter.
“We have to play competitively,” Natoli said. “We can’t give them too many open looks because they not only shoot great on the free throw line, they got great perimeter shooters. But we’re going to play as aggressive as we can.”
Top scorers
Clarksburg: Destiny Turner (29), London Turner (14), Rianna Prather (4)
Jaguars: Ava Redmond (14), Kyla Graham (10), Alana Joy (8)
Upcoming games (4A State Tournament)
Maryland 4A Girls State Championship Game
Clarksburg Coyotes vs. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons, TBD