All-everything guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt was at such a moment with just under 10 minutes to go in her BWSL’s semifinal battle on Thursday morning with the Georgia Metros at the 17U U.S. Junior Nationals.

Ruffin-Pratt and her BWSL teammates were staring at a 31-20 deficit, were playing sluggishly and sloppily, and were without the services of their Maryland-bound presence in the middle, Lynetta Kizer, who sat out a significant portion of the game with a jammed thumb on her left hand.

Then, the light switched on.

Ruffin-Pratt turned up the defense which resulted in transition lay-ups for her and her teammates on the other end. It ignited The Boo Williams squad, and their collective team swagger was back. By the 7:00 mark of the second half, they had cut The Metros lead down to four, 34-30.

For The Metros, they had been the best passing team of the whole tournament up to the point of the Boo Williams run. However, Boo forced them out of sync by turning up the defensive pressure. Additionally, some of Georgia’s best players sat for various portions of the second half, which also seemed to lend to the Metros rhythm being a little bit off-kilter. With 3:30 left in the game, Boo took its first lead since the opening minute of the contest, 36-35, on a Daniell Jackson bucket. After a Metros misfire, Georgia had to start fouling to get into the one-and-one bonus situation.

With 20 seconds left and BWSL leading 40-37, the Metros called timeout to set up a play to get the ball quickly up the length of the court for a score. However, on the ensuing inbounds, BWSL had other ideas. Having a handful of fouls to take, BWSL would foul once the ball had been inbounded. By the time the Metros worked the ball down the court against BWSL’s fouling tactics, there were just :our seconds left in the game. An out-of-range, three-point attempt fell harmlessly short of the basket at the buzzer.

BWSL and Ruffin-Prat, turned on their defensive intensity just in time to rally and steal this semifinal game.

West Coast Elite 51, Philly Belles 42

The West Coast Elite and The Philadelphia Belles engaged in a spirited semifinal game Thursday morning at the USJN’s 17U Championships. The contest was physical and both teams played passionately, with WCE eventually pulling out a 51-42 victory.

It was a game of streaks that started withthe Belles racing out to a quick lead behind the post play of Stephanie Holzer and Chelsea Shine, as well as the guard play of Lexie Gerson and Jesse Carey. Then, following a WCE timeout, the powerful inside play of Kelsey Bone and Monique Oliver, combined with the perimeter play of Brianna Gilbreath and Lindy LaRocque, put The WC Elite up 20-11.

The Belles were not fazed. They regrouped and swung the momentum back their way with the perimeter shooting of Carey and Katie Rutan, the athleticism and the passing prowess in transition of Gerson, and the sheer hustle to offensive rebounds by forwards Ashley Robinson, Kristen Johnsen, and Haley Peters.

By halftime, the two teams had taken turns sprinting to a 27-27 deadlock.

At the start of 2nd half, the two teams went at it like heavyweights. But, the few times on the defensive end that The Belles didn’t recognize a perimeter shooter quickly enough or rotate to cover the weak side low block quickly enough, then The WC Elite took advantage of these chances, hit the player with the open look, and they converted. On the other end, the rare unchallenged looks for The Belles were not being converted into points.

The WC Elite slowly stretched their lead up to seven, at 40 - 33, and then The Belles cut into their deficit just under the 5:00 mark, 41-37. Behind the shooting of Gilbreath and LaRocque, and the offensive glass-sweeping of Bone, the lead slowly moved back up to 47-40 by the final minute.