Democracy Prep girls basketball coach Julius Barren called a timeout with 12 seconds left and the Blue Knights trailing Bishop Gorman by three in a Class 5A state semifinal.
Barren drew up a play. It didn’t exactly go as planned, but it had the end result his team needed.
Bray’ana Miles drilled a 3-pointer with four seconds left to send the game to overtime. Democracy Prep buckled down in the extra period, and the second-seeded Blue Knights held No. 3 Gorman scoreless to dethrone the defending state champ 60-49 on Wednesday at Clark.
Democracy Prep (23-3) will face the winner of Centennial and Faith Lutheran at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Cox Pavilion for the 5A state title.
“I told the girls in overtime, ‘If this moment isn’t going to make you want to leave it all on the floor, I don’t know what will,’” Barren said. “They responded. That’s just a (storybook) ending for who we are as a program.”
Miles, a junior guard, scored 21 points and added seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. Keonni Lewis added 18 points, and La’Niah Hicks had seven points and 12 rebounds for the Blue Knights.
“In all our close games, we were always down,” Miles said. “We always were the team that had to come back. So that’s what we usually do.”
Junior guard Aaliah Spaight single-handedly carried the Gaels (17-8) with 32 points. She drilled a pair of free throws with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter that gave Gorman its largest lead of the game, 47-40.
But Lewis answered with a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, and Ella Smith’s driving layup with 45 seconds left cut the deficit to 47-46. Spaight made two more free throws with 19 seconds left, and Democracy Prep prepared for its final shot.
“We were trying to get a pin-down screen for (Aryana Edwards), but (Miles) couldn’t get the ball back to the play we were trying to do so she saw an opportunity,” Barren said. “(Miles) is a high IQ player, and she understood time was running down and she stepped up.
“I’m so proud of her because two years ago, she wouldn’t have taken that shot. But now her confidence is up and now she understands she’s one of the best players in the state.”
Miles scored 10 points in the first half. Aside from a free throw in the third quarter, the 5-foot-3-inch guard was held scoreless in the second half until the 3-pointer.
“They told me to get a 2-pointer, and I was like, ‘I’m going to get a 3-pointer because we’re going to tie this game up,’” Miles said. “The play didn’t work, so I got the ball, and I just shot it.”
Miles scored four quick points in overtime, and Democracy Prep ramped up the pressure on defense to force Gorman and Spaight into difficult shots in the four-minute period.
“That’s big to execute offensively and give up no points,” Barren said. “That’s just a testament to how bad they wanted it.”
Last season, Gorman defeated Democracy Prep three times, including in the state semifinals. The teams played a thrilling regular-season game on Feb. 5 that saw the Blue Knights rally from a double-digit deficit for a 46-45 win.
“It’s been the story of this program, to see all the battles and obstacles that we have to face toward the end like that. It’s just who we are,” Barren said. “It looks like it’s over, it looks like we’re counted out, and, boom, one shot changes the game and gets us in overtime.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.