Makayla Finnegan (above, left) and Emily Knouse led Wood to a wild, come-from-behind win. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)
By Andrew Robinson
It was gut-check time.
Archbishop Wood girls’ basketball coach Mike McDonald sent Emily Knouse to check in with a little less than four minutes to play and the Vikings trailing by 11 against Archbishop Carroll. He was going to give Knouse and the group on the floor a last chance to find themselves and if it didn’t work, he was ready to call in the subs.
Knouse certainly found herself, Makayla Finnegan found herself on the right end of two of the game’s biggest plays and somehow Wood found itself a 51-46 winner over the Patriots thanks to a 16-0 game-ending run Saturday night.
“I’m in disbelief almost with that just happening, it felt like a playoff game at the end there,” McDonald said. “Gutsy, gutsy stuff from our kids. I thought Makayla Finnegan was our player of the game in many ways, putting the ball in the basket and drawing a charge at the end was huge, that was the biggest one of the season so far.”