Trinity's Big 3: Lindblade sinks game-winner, Lancers knock off unbeaten Hawks
Jan. 6—Trinity Lindblade had already drained a trio of deep 3-pointers by the time she brought the ball up the floor, her Linganore girls basketball team down two with 19 seconds left. On this particular play, she was supposed to find a tying 2 — a runner, a layup or a pass to an open teammate who could make something happen.
But as the junior point guard got about 25 feet from the basket on the right side, she saw none of those looks. So, with five seconds left, she let fly her biggest shot of the night.
And like her previous makes, this one swished through. Only this time, it gave the Lancers the lead for good.
Urbana then pulled up for one last desperation heave, which was futile, and Lindblade soon found herself at the bottom of a dogpile of teammates and the students that joined them on the court. They had reason to celebrate Linganore's 63-62 home win over their rivals.
The Lancers handed the Hawks their first loss of the year, meaning they stand as the county's last unbeaten. But it's also Linganore's first victory over Urbana in three seasons, a stamp that it is, for the moment, the team to beat.
"She has the green light," Lancers coach Rachael Easterday said. "She knows she has the green light to shoot, and she takes that on her shoulders."
That trust in her best pure shooter gave Easterday the confidence to set up the game-winning possession for Lindblade.
Though the play was designed to go for the tie, Lindblade pulled up from deep instead.
"I was supposed to get an open shot," she said. "We were looking for a 2, but the 3 was open, so I shot it."
It was the closest-in of her four treys, two of which she scored early in the contest and the other coming as Linganore (10-0) began its fourth-quarter rally. The Lancers fell behind with 35 seconds to play in the first half and remained trailing or tied for all but a few moments after that.
They were down 10 at one point in the third quarter, but they slowly chipped away at the Hawks' advantage before knotting the contest at 58. But senior guard Hannah Miles (10 points, five rebounds) scooped in a layup for Urbana (6-1), and senior guard Cassidy Mahaney (game-high 17 points) followed with a pair of free throws as Linganore had two starters foul out in the final minutes.
But the Lancers got a critical defensive stop and called timeout to set up a play, which ended with senior forward Emma Bowers' second-chance putback cutting the deficit to 62-60.
After another stand, Lindblade took the ball up the floor, sized up her defender and hit her dagger.
"She's been a good player for a while in this county, so everybody kind of knows about her, and congrats to her," Hawks coach Joe Blaser said.
"That's exactly what you want for your team is to play in these kinds of games, get that experience," he added. "This is only going to help us."
Lindblade seized the game, maintaining a calm demeanor the whole time. She only basked in the moment once the game ended, after she nailed the shot the whole gym knew she could hit.
It was her third game-winner, and the first with Linganore after transferring from Thomas Johnson.
"Feels just as good," she said.
