Things like what happened to Trenell Smith with 15.8 seconds left in the GCAC championship game at The Den shouldn’t happen to players like Trenell Smith.
It’s not fair when players like her, who wow the crowd with circus shots in the middle of pressure-cooker games, collaborate on a miscue on a crucial possession that leaves her feeling like the game she played deserved a much happier finale. With 15.8 seconds left in the March 11 title game, in command of a 64-63 lead over No. 24 Xavier University, Smith advanced the ball past half-court and tried to flail a difficult cross-body, almost cross-court pass to teammate Christine Mainguy.
She aimed wide left, the ball blowing past Mainguy, off the hardwood and out of bounds.
“I thought she was there, but she wasn’t,” she calmly said outside the locker room.
Some 15.1 seconds later, Xavier’s Shayla Boyd hit an off-balance, fade-away shot to tally her eighth point and put cross-town nemesis Xavier up 65-64, barring Loyola from its second consecutive conference tournament ring to supplement a second consecutive regular season crown.
But by then, the only mark the second-time all-conference player’s 24 points hadn’t bested was a 26-point mark from her twin sister and GCAC Player of the Year Trenese, and none of the 17 other active players had as large an impact on the proceedings as she did. “We wouldn’t have even been in that (64-63 lead) position if it wasn’t for her,” coach Dobee Plaisance said. “If she goes at the pressure, we do well.”
To put the Wolfpack up 55-51, she fired a shot off in the middle of what looked like the hokey-pokey dance – she had her right heel down and her left leg up after she spun herself around, flicking an impossible shot into the net a split instant before committing a violation.
She should’ve ended up with her back pressed up against Trenese’s under a cheesy “BACK-TO-BACK” headline on The Maroon’s front page. Instead, basketball’s bastard gods once again dealt an unfair hand to one of their most devout and sent her burying her weary face into teammate Kim Rigg’s jersey letters as Xavier’s supporters stampeded onto the court and stomped on The Den’s center logo.
The good thing for Trenell is that life on the other side of the all-conference defending champion coin lasted all of a few minutes after the game. She’s a sophomore (yikes, GCAC), and her best ball is still ahead of her. Next week, she’ll be running the floor at the national tournament.
More importantly, that miscue infinitely matured her. Just ask teammate Keily Schork.
“With all that she’s done and is going to do, she’s going to come back even better.”
