McLin’s Return, Tough Defense Nearly Score The Queens’ Their First Win Of 2022

The Steel City Queens within two points of their first win of the season. Photo by Thomas Leturgey. 

By Thomas Leturgey

The Steel City Queens provided their best 40 minutes of basketball this Women’s American Basketball Association (WABA) of the season, but ultimately fell to the Virginia Hearts 74-72.

Ike Burgman’s 2-1 team drove the four hours from Northern Virginia to A Giving Heart Community Center for the official second-half of the Queens’ 0-4 season.

Sierra Williams tied the game right after the Hearts had a 2-0 lead. Shataya White and Williams continued the early scoring for the home club and the very early lead with the Hearts called a time out with 6:08 remaining in the first half. Virginia’s Alyssa Mayrose hit a nice underhanded basket to trim the lead and Tayler Dodson scored to put the visitors on top, with 4:25 to go. 

Ciarra Patterson, who played one of her best games of the season, scored, as did White to trim Virginia’s lead to 14-11. It was here in which the Hearts started a sprint. Mayrose and some bench players came on to extend their lead.

A couple of bright spots happened for the Queens in the closing moments of the first quarter. Brand new signee Jasmine Myers hit her first bucket of the season to bring the club within seven points. And Sabrina McLin, last year’s All-Star for the Queens, returned for her first action of the season and scored with :30 to go in the quarter. She was fouled on her jumper and nailed the free throw, but the Hearts were ahead 24-16 at the end of the first 10 minutes of play.

The second-half started well for the Hearts and they extended their lead to 31-16 but Patterson nailed an important three-pointer and got the Queens back into it at 31-19. Some sloppy play on both teams led to technical fouls and missed 3D opportunities. The teams traded baskets and defense played a huge part to keep the Hearts from extending their lead to large margins.

At the pre-game meeting, Head Coach Ace Pippens told his team to play stronger defense, and they did. A pointed comment from forward Tyra James to “play with confidence” and as the game wore on, the Queens did just that.

Sabrina McLin played a fluid game and came off the bench in a way Katelyn Fischer had in the opening four contests. Fischer was not with the team Saturday, with an excused absence.

McLin scored with 2:00 to go in the half, but the Hearts went on an 8-2 run to have a 47-26 halftime lead.

In one quarter of each game this season, the Queens have left the other team garnering great momentum. This wasn’t one of those days. In the opening moments of the second half, Pippens’ team, led by Sanders, White and Patterson, whittled the Hearts lead to 47-35. Burgman’s team called a timeout with 8:23 to go in the third quarter. Patterson soon hit a three-pointer to get to a 9-point deficit, 50-41. 

Ariana Sanders came on strong for the home team in the next few moments, and got the club within 4 points, 54-50 with 2:01 to go in the quarter. Then, Patterson hit a three-pointer, to make it 54-53 and with :50 in the third, McLin gave the Queens a late-game lead. Patterson was then fouled and hit one of two free throws and the Steel City entrant had a 56-54 lead at the end of the third.

At the beginning of the fourth, McLin got swatted in the eye and slowed down, but Sanders hit a smooth layup to extend the club’s lead to 58-54. Then, McLin, who showed leadership throughout the game, hit a triple to give the Queens a 61-54 lead and after a Hearts’ time out, White hit one of her own to stretch the lead to 64-59. 

Fouls played a key role in this game. Both teams committed quite a few infractions, which slowed down the contest a great deal. The Queens and Hearts also had trouble at the foul line. Virginia’s Tia Benvenuti hit two free-throws to trim the lead, and Destiny Jurnigan hit one to make it 66-63. 

McLin was fouled and hit one-of-two from the free throw line and the Queens were back to a four-point lead with about 6:00 left.  

Shatayra White scored five unanswered points for the Queens, but Benvenuti hit a triple from the Hearts and it was 72-67. 

Alexis Brito, who played in her first game, fared well for the home club under the basket. She recorded a number of key rebounds. Alexis Campbell was fouled and hit one of two free throws to get the Hearts back to within a jumper at 72-70. Brito was mugged by three Hearts’ players coming down with a rebound, but was somehow charged with a foul. Campbell hit one of two free throws to make it 72-71 with 2:32 to go. 

During a long inbound pass, Campbell was crushed, jumping to intercept. There was an injury time out as a result, but Campbell attempted to stay in. She was forced to the bench and a substitution came in. At this point in the game, with fouls and other oddities, the game came to a grinding halt. 

The Queens called a time out with 1:43 to go and when there was an active play at the Hearts’ end of the court, Patterson had the wherewithal to dive after an errant ball, and fire it off of a Virginia player’s leg and force a turnover. Patterson then was called with a charge and Virginia had the ball with :45 to go. 

With :32 left in the game, Virginia took the lead when Mayrose scored a jumper, 73-72. The Queens were unable to get back into the game, as fouls did little more than slice time off of the clock. Benvenuti hit one-of-two free throws to finish the scoring at 74-72 with .13.2 seconds on the clock. 

With 1.9 seconds on the clock there was a huge collision at center court with the Queens’ Sabrina McLin butting heads with the Hearts’ Sasha Orr, and with Tia Benvenuti also rushing to the ball. All three were busted open, staff and officials quickly came to everyone’s aid. Benvenuti was reportedly taken to a local hospital to have x-rays done on what was suspected to be a bruised elbow. Orr and McLin had their heads extensively wrapped.

With 1.9 seconds left, game officials wanted to simply toss the ball in. Ciarra Patterson wanted none of it. She wanted to play full tilt, with hopes of a literal last-second miracle. The Hearts had possession and the ball was tossed in without incident.

The Queens fall to 0-5 and the Hearts improve to 3-1. The Queens return to action in two weeks, August 21 at A Giving Heart when the DC Cyclones come to town. The Cyclones scored a forfeit win against the Queens last week when the team did not have enough players to make the trip. The Queens will then play the last two games of the season on the road in Richmond on the 27th and then finish the 2022 campaign against these same Virginia Hearts on August 28.