Pacific
Far East D-II girlsPanthers rally to make it a basketball sweep
Stars and Stripes
February 18, 2015
Yokota beat Zama 53-40 to win the 2015 Division II girls Far East championship game Wednesday. (Kayla Bodwin/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Yokota beat Zama 53-40 to win the 2015 Division II girls Far East championship game Wednesday. (Kayla Bodwin/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Zama's Ti'Ara Carroll looks for room to maneuver around Yokota's Jamia Bailey during Wednesday's 2015 Division II girls Far East championship game. Yokota beat Zama 53-40. (Kayla Bodwin/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Zama's Malina Camacho guards Yokota's Caitlyn Rowan during the 2015 Division II girls championship game Wednesday. Yokota beat Zama 53-40. (Kayla Bodwin/Special to Stars and Stripes)
ASIJ's Mia Weinland grabs a rebound over Kadena's Tiarrah Edwards, while ASIJ teammate Kate Latimore looks on Wednesday during the 2015 Far East Division I girls championship game. ASIJ won 46-38. (Abby Bissell/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Nile C. Kinnick's Lexia Hall goes up for a shot between two ASIJ defenders Wednesday during the 2015 Far East Division I girls championship game. ASIJ won 46-38. (Abby Bissell/Special to Stars and Stripes)
CAMP ZAMA, Japan -- Call the Yokota girls basketball team the second-half kids.
Trailing at halftime in both the semifinals and the championship, MVP Sarah Claypool and the Panthers rallied for victories twice to capture the title Wednesday in their first trip to the Far East Division II Girls Basketball Tournament.
"Both games, the girls played good second halves, the girls came out at half and did really well," Yokota coach Kitty Martinez did after the Panthers won their first Far East title of any kind since taking the 1989 and 1991 Division I titles.
Yokota got a semifinal victory over Edgren before topping Zama American 53-40 in Wednesday's final at the Yano Fitness Center on Camp Zama.
The Panthers trailed Edgren by a point before outscoring them 31-12 in the second half of the semifinal, then rallied from a 21-15 halftime gap against Zama by scoring 20 points in the third period.
“At halftime, I think we just refocused,” Martinez said.
There were questions as to the health of Claypool and freshman point guard Jamia Bailey heading into the D-II tournament, as each suffered injuries during the DODDS Japan tournament Feb. 5-7 at Yokota.
But they returned to action after Martinez rested the two for the Panthers' last two regular-season games, each losses to Division I American School In Japan and Seisen International. But sitting them out, Martinez said, was a wise decision.
"It ended up being a good decision," she said. "It ended up being better safe than sorry."
Bailey had 15 points and Caitlyn Rowan scored 14 for the Panthers in the championship game against Zama, a team that handed them a 45-39 loss in Monday’s pool play. Sarah Cronin and Jasmine Strong added eight points each.
Destiny Howze led Zama – which lost its first game of the tournament – with 16 points.MVP – Sarah Claypool, YokotaAll-Tournament Ja’asia Rasun, Humphreys; Heidi Burkard, Okinawa Christian; Michele Thompson, Sarah Colthart, Osan; Naomi Ziola, Matthew C. Perry; Coko Magby, Vanessa Black, Robert D. Edgren; Signe Tyler, Sacred Heart; Claypool, Sarah Cronin, Jamia Bailey, Caitlyn Rowen, Yokota; Destiny Howze, Aly Chiarenza, Tiara Carroll, Zama