South Shore defeated St. Anthony on Jan. 15 — but the 46–45 victory was a painful one for senior post Fannisha “Box” Price.
Price never shows pain when she’s on the court, but wen she fell early in the fourth quarter — landing directly on her shoulder, Price stayed on the ground for a little while and grimaced on her way to the bench.
Yet the Marshall-bound Price came back into the game and scored South Shore’s final six points, including a beautiful turnaround jumper from 15 feet to put the Vikings ahead for good.
“I just bounce right back up [usually], but that one hurt,” she said. “It slowed me down a little bit.”
When asked if she thought about not coming back into the game, Price stared blankly. There was no way that was going to happen, the 6-foot-2 forward said.
“I knew she would come back in,” South Shore senior wing Jenice Winter explained. “I told her before she fell, I was like, ‘We need you Box.’ She was like ‘I know.’”
Price’s jumper came with four seconds left and she finished with 13 points. She went down with 7:48 left, walked to the bench and iced her shoulder before coming back minutes later. Price was still hurting after the game, though.
“She’s definitely in pain,” South Shore coach Anwar Gladden said. “I’m very hard on Box. I’ve known Box since she was in third grade. My expectations for her are above and beyond. She knows she never does anything that I’m ecstatic about, but today she just played tremendous.”
Winter had 10 points and budding star freshman Brianna Fraser added nine points for South Shore (14–1), earning arguably South Shore’s biggest win of the season. The Vikings’ only loss this year came to national powerhouse Whitney Young of Illinois, currently ranked No. 4 in the country by USA Today.
“I think it’s a step forward for us,” Price said. “We can grab some confidence off this win.”
It didn’t come easy and it was very much in question the whole way. Rebecca Musgrove (10 points) missed the front end of a one-and-one to set up Price’s shot and Chasity Taylor had a layup with two seconds left on a fast break that found only the backboard. Jennifer Sixsmith (eight points) hit a 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining to give St. Anthony’s (10–4) a 45–44 lead.
“The girls stuck with it, they didn’t get discouraged,” said Gladden, whose team also beat the Long Island stalwart last year at the Kennedy Challenge. “After the kid hit the big 3, they just kept their composure. We went back to our senior captain in Fannisha Price and she delivered.”
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
