Cosby Downs T.C. Williams

Injured All-Met Ruffin-Pratt Misses the Game

RICHMOND, March 6 -- As she stood near Siegel Center's three-point line during a walk-through two hours before the start of Friday night's 86-59 Virginia AAA quarterfinal loss to Cosby, first-year T.C. Williams coach Cavanaugh Hagen tried to distract her team from the loss of its star player.

But most of what Hagen said only magnified the fact that Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, the reigning All-Met Player of the Year, was standing at the baseline in street clothes and out for the night with the same chronic shoulder injury that ended last year's 22-0 start.

Cosby "is a young team and they haven't been here before and some of us have been here before," Hagen barked before she called out the next play. "Okay, now run Carolina."

But Hagen had forgotten that Ruffin-Pratt -- a North Carolina-bound senior all-American -- was the only remaining contributor from the Titans' last trip to the state tournament in 2006, when she burst onto the scene with a 38-point performance that moved the freshman phenom onto every major college-recruiting radar and kick-started a 2,400-point career that ended Friday night with her sitting on the bench as her teammates struggled without her.

"It was tough, you know, tough that I couldn't do anything more to help this team," said Ruffin-Pratt, a McDonald's all-American who re-injured her shoulder in last week's Northern Region final loss.

Last night, No. 18 T.C. Williams (24-6) shot 4 for 14 in the first quarter and fell behind by 14 points as they struggled to defend Cosby's talented trio of juniors -- 6-foot-1 Virginia-bound inside presence Jazmin Pitts (19 points), slasher Andrea Bertrand (24 points) and Becca Wann (committed to Richmond), a sharpshooter who chipped in 31 points on a variety of putbacks, drives and three-pointers.

Ruffin-Pratt "was obviously a big presence that was missing," Hagen said. "But we could have given them a better fight."

T.C. Williams rode 5-foot-9 sophomore guard Jasmine Norman's 10-point second-quarter effort, but struggled to find balance as Cosby (29-1) built a 45-28 halftime lead and led by 38 during its dominant game-ending run.

Cosby 86 No. 18 T.C. Williams 59 Shooting Woes: T.C. Williams shot 20 for 69, 17 for 29 from the free throw line and 2 for 9 from the three-point line. Cosby Kids: During last night's game, junior Becca Wann notched her 500th career assist while junior Jazmin Pitts added her 750th career rebound. "They'll be back next year too," said Coach Rachel Mead. "I think I'll come back for another year."