A Free Lesson
SHS Junior Learns From ‘12
Posted: January 10, 2013
PENN LAIRD – Rachel Lindsay says most people don’t know that she is a pretty good piano player – and not of the typical, classical variety. Lindsay’s specialty is R&B music. Her best song: “Love Faces” by Trey Songz.
The memory more people have of Lindsay, though, is her role on the Spotswood High School girls’ basketball team in its final game last season. That one isn’t a happy memory.
With a state tournament bid on the line in a Division 3, Region III semifinal against R.E. Lee on Feb. 23, Lindsay was fouled on a desperation shot with the Blazers trailing 52-51 and 1.6 seconds remaining. She remembers the experience well.
“I thought the first was going in for sure,” Lindsay recalled. “And that kind of got me scared for the second one.”
She missed both shots off the back rim, and Spotswood lost a game that some believed determined the Division 3 champion. Lee went on to win the title.
“I’m still not completely over it,” Lindsay said at practice recently, adding that she replayed the experience in her head “every day for a week” after it happened.
But this season, those missed free throws haven’t necessarily been a bad thing.
Now a 16-year-old junior, Lindsay said she shot more free throws than ever last offseason, “so that if I was put in this situation, then I wouldn’t [miss],” she said.
So far, in similar circumstances, she hasn’t.
In a Dec. 29 game against The Miller School – the championship of a holiday tournament in Charlottesville – Lindsay twice went to the foul line for a pair of freebies. She knocked down three of four, helping the Blazers preserve a 62-57 win and ultimately their undefeated season.
Six days later, Lindsay made a pair of free throws in the final minute of a 57-54 win over Broadway.
Moreover, SHS has yet to lose through 12 games, and Lindsay has made clutch free throws in the two closest wins.
All the while, the Blazers constantly remind themselves of that heart-wrenching loss. Their practice jerseys read “Unfinished Business” on the front, a direct reference to last season’s postseason cut short.
“I think we’ve had a lot of motivation because of that,” said Lindsay, the daughter of Mark and Cheryl Lindsay. “We just really want to win it now. We feel like we could have had it last year.”
The 5-foot-5 guard is fairly shy – “If you get her to say 10 words in a practice, you’ve done something,” SHS coach Chris Dodson said – so her emotions are generally hard to read. When she goes to the foul line in clutch situations, Dodson said he can never tell if she’s nervous.
But there was no mistaking the tears after she missed the shots against Lee.
“I just felt for Rachel, because I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I knew she was going to take the blame for it,” senior Bailey Williams said, noting that she had missed free throws earlier in the fourth quarter.
In the weeks that followed, both Dodson and Lindsay’s teammates told her that her missed free throws didn’t define the loss. There were plenty of other players making mistakes in that game, they told her.
“We sat and had talks. I called her mom, called her dad, just checking on her for a while afterwards,” Dodson said.
“Kind of like father-daughter talks where you want to put your arm around ’em and just say, ‘You understand that even though it was you on the line at the end, and you’re the one that everybody’s going to remember, it’s OK.’ We go back and we look at that game, and we understand how many other people made mistakes.”
Lindsay said it took her weeks to believe them. Now, although she said she’s still “disappointed” in missing those foul shots, she buys into her teammates’ constant support – and she’s playing with more confidence than ever, on the foul line and off.
She’s a starter for the first time this season — she was only in last year’s regional semifinal game down the stretch because a teammate fouled out – and Lindsay now takes the ball to the basket more … which, of course, means she also gets to the foul line more often. She’s 9-of-12 from the line on the season and 22-of-38 from the field, averaging five points, three assists and two rebounds per game.
“I think that the drive in her didn’t allow her to not get back to that line,” Dodson said. “It’s something this year that she wanted to make sure she got to [the foul line], and she wanted to get more shots there. And that’s the sign of a great player.”
And her teammates are perfectly happy to see her there.
“I knew it was a one-time thing [last year],” Williams said.
The memory more people have of Lindsay, though, is her role on the Spotswood High School girls’ basketball team in its final game last season. That one isn’t a happy memory.
With a state tournament bid on the line in a Division 3, Region III semifinal against R.E. Lee on Feb. 23, Lindsay was fouled on a desperation shot with the Blazers trailing 52-51 and 1.6 seconds remaining. She remembers the experience well.
“I thought the first was going in for sure,” Lindsay recalled. “And that kind of got me scared for the second one.”
She missed both shots off the back rim, and Spotswood lost a game that some believed determined the Division 3 champion. Lee went on to win the title.
“I’m still not completely over it,” Lindsay said at practice recently, adding that she replayed the experience in her head “every day for a week” after it happened.
But this season, those missed free throws haven’t necessarily been a bad thing.
Now a 16-year-old junior, Lindsay said she shot more free throws than ever last offseason, “so that if I was put in this situation, then I wouldn’t [miss],” she said.
So far, in similar circumstances, she hasn’t.
In a Dec. 29 game against The Miller School – the championship of a holiday tournament in Charlottesville – Lindsay twice went to the foul line for a pair of freebies. She knocked down three of four, helping the Blazers preserve a 62-57 win and ultimately their undefeated season.
Six days later, Lindsay made a pair of free throws in the final minute of a 57-54 win over Broadway.
Moreover, SHS has yet to lose through 12 games, and Lindsay has made clutch free throws in the two closest wins.
All the while, the Blazers constantly remind themselves of that heart-wrenching loss. Their practice jerseys read “Unfinished Business” on the front, a direct reference to last season’s postseason cut short.
“I think we’ve had a lot of motivation because of that,” said Lindsay, the daughter of Mark and Cheryl Lindsay. “We just really want to win it now. We feel like we could have had it last year.”
The 5-foot-5 guard is fairly shy – “If you get her to say 10 words in a practice, you’ve done something,” SHS coach Chris Dodson said – so her emotions are generally hard to read. When she goes to the foul line in clutch situations, Dodson said he can never tell if she’s nervous.
But there was no mistaking the tears after she missed the shots against Lee.
“I just felt for Rachel, because I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I knew she was going to take the blame for it,” senior Bailey Williams said, noting that she had missed free throws earlier in the fourth quarter.
In the weeks that followed, both Dodson and Lindsay’s teammates told her that her missed free throws didn’t define the loss. There were plenty of other players making mistakes in that game, they told her.
“We sat and had talks. I called her mom, called her dad, just checking on her for a while afterwards,” Dodson said.
“Kind of like father-daughter talks where you want to put your arm around ’em and just say, ‘You understand that even though it was you on the line at the end, and you’re the one that everybody’s going to remember, it’s OK.’ We go back and we look at that game, and we understand how many other people made mistakes.”
Lindsay said it took her weeks to believe them. Now, although she said she’s still “disappointed” in missing those foul shots, she buys into her teammates’ constant support – and she’s playing with more confidence than ever, on the foul line and off.
She’s a starter for the first time this season — she was only in last year’s regional semifinal game down the stretch because a teammate fouled out – and Lindsay now takes the ball to the basket more … which, of course, means she also gets to the foul line more often. She’s 9-of-12 from the line on the season and 22-of-38 from the field, averaging five points, three assists and two rebounds per game.
“I think that the drive in her didn’t allow her to not get back to that line,” Dodson said. “It’s something this year that she wanted to make sure she got to [the foul line], and she wanted to get more shots there. And that’s the sign of a great player.”
And her teammates are perfectly happy to see her there.
“I knew it was a one-time thing [last year],” Williams said.