Laurel Defeats Proctorville Fairland In Thriller to Advance To DIV II State Title Game

While Laurel School phenom Saniyah Hall gets all the headlines—and rightly so—basketball is more than a one-person game.

The sophomore had another magnificent game Friday to lead the Gators to a Division II state semifinal victory over Proctorville Fairland, 53-52. But it was freshman Jordyn Meyer who finished the biggest play of the season, hitting a layup with 5 seconds remaining off a feed from Hall to propel Laurel into the first state title game in program history.

“It feels great,” said Meyer, who contributed 14 points and made 3 of 5 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. “There’s been so much work that goes in, and it feels great to have it all pay off.”

The Gators, whose eight-player rotation consists of five sophomores and three freshmen, twice trailed by as many as eight points in the first half, and the halftime deficit was 27-21. The score was tied at 40 at the end of three quarters, setting up a back-and-forth affair in the final period. Laurel never trailed in the final 4 minutes, 36 seconds of the game, but they didn’t take the lead for good until Meyer’s clinching layup.

Fairland’s Addison Godby hit a spinning layup with 21 seconds left to tie the score at 51, followed by a timeout by Laurel. On the final play, the ball was inbounded to Hall on the Fairland half of the court. As she approached the midcourt line, she was surrounded by three defenders, forcing the Gators to improvise.

“To be completely honest with you, we drew a play up and didn’t get to run it because of how they were pressuring the ball,” said Laurel coach Terrina Robinson. “We’d been working on situations for the past two or three months, and one of them was, when you’re in that situation, understanding how to be able to manipulate the defense to create successful actions.”

As one of the top-ranked players in the country, Hall had the size and the ability to improvise the winning play.

“I was getting trapped,” said Hall. “There were two or three people coming at me. A lot was going on in my head, but I saw to the left side that Jordyn cut. It was a really good play that she made, and I just got the ball to her. The defender that was in front of me was a little bit shorter than me, so I was able to see over the top of her and I got to see my teammate wide open.”

Meyer found herself all alone in the paint and completed the layup with 5 seconds to play, making it 53-51.

“I knew Saniyah was getting trapped and I was trying to set up in the play,” she said. “But we couldn’t even run it because there were so many people around her and in that area. I just had to get myself open. I had all the coaches yelling at me to get open. The basket was wide open and Saniyah, with her God-given talent, ended up getting to where she needed to go. It ended up with me being wide open, and if it wasn’t for Saniyah getting open, it would have never happened.”

Fairland inbounded the ball immediately, and Bailey Russell was fouled on her way to the basket with 0.2 seconds on the clock. The sophomore calmly swished the first attempt, but her second fell short, putting Laurel into Saturday’s state final. The Gators, now 19-10, will play two-time defending champion Cincinnati Purcell Marian at 5:15 p.m. The Cavaliers completely dismantled Copley in the other state semifinal, 67-29.

“It’s been a rough year for Laurel basketball, for a young group,” Robinson said. “A lot of people counted us out early. A lot of people didn’t think we would make it here. But all year we’ve been talking about when the weapons form not allowing them to prosper. I think today, more than ever, we pushed through when adversity hit, and we showed people what Laurel basketball is all about.”

Hall showed once again why she is the third-ranked player in the nation among 10^th-graders and why Robinson refers to her as the Big Dog. She finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds, five steals and four assists—with none being bigger than the pass she made to Meyer in the game’s waning seconds.

“We had a freshman who stepped up and made a huge shot,” Robinson said. “Obviously, the Big Dog—we talk about how prolific of a scorer she is, but the best thing that I’ve been talking about all year is her unselfishness and her willingness to make everyone around her better. That’s what that last play was, her true nature coming out.”