The Lady Cardinals staged a comeback for the ages Sunday night in the semifinals of the NJCAA WBB D1 Championship Tournament in Lubbock.
Down 64-55 with 4:56 to go in the game, they finished on a 16-6 run, capped by a Makiyah McCollister running floater from mid-lane with 0.2 seconds left to give the Lady Cardinals a 71-70 win against Eastern Florida State.
As a result, the third-seeded Lady Cardinals (34-2) advance to tonight's championship game to face eighth-seeded Northwest Florida State (28-4). The game will be nationally-televised on ESPNU at 8 p.m.
Down 70-69 with 6.2 seconds left, the Lady Cardinals, after a timeout, had possession in front of their bench. The ball was inbounded to McCollister, who took a couple of dribbles to the left and then drove into the lane and put up (and in) an arching shot that seemingly hung in the air forever before finally falling in.
Eastern Florida State (33-2), the tournament's No. 2 seed, led 52-45 after three quarters and were up 67-60 before the Lady Cardinals pushed the button to complete the comeback.
The Lady Cardinals made an 8-0 run to end the first quarter to head into the second quarter up 17-12. They would extend the lead to 11 with 5:25 left in the second quarter. That's when Elli Garnett took over the game. She scored 13 of her game-high 28 points in the second quarter as the Titans stormed back to within four at halftime, trailing 33-29.
The Lady Cardinal lead would vanish in the third quarter. Eastern Florida State would outscore them 23-12 in the quarter.
Briana Peguero led the Lady Cardinals with 18 points. Lafaedria Green had 13, all in the second half, and Abby Cater 11.
The win was the 100th for Lady Cardinal head coach Precious Ivy. She is now 100-12 in four seasons (three full) at the helm.
The Lady Cardinals, in their 16th national title game, will be seeking a ninth championship.
