Alabama women’s basketball player Sarah Ashlee Barker handled a difficult double-overtime defeat with grace, saying she knew what was on the line but at the end of the day, making or missing critical shots wouldn’t have changed the fact that He was her “rock.” The comments came in a post-game press conference after Barker’s #5 Alabama lost in the second overtime in a match against #4 LSU.
The game itself had all the hallmarks of a March Madness contest. Alabama was up by as much as 17 in the second half, including 9 to start the fourth quarter. But in a game of ebbs and flows, Maryland never surrendered. Toward the end of regulation, Barker herself hit a clutch shot almost sealing the victory for her Crimson Tide before Maryland answered and sent the game to its first overtime.
And the drama wasn’t over. At the end of the first overtime, and the part which Barker emotionally recounts in the interview, her team was down three with one second to go and she was fouled in the act of shooting from behind the arc. An obvious defensive blunder, but a huge opportunity for Barker. As she said, though, “regardless if I would have made all three, or not all three, He would have still been my rock, and He still would have held me, held my head high, and I knew that.”
Skill coupled with Christ-centered comfort delivered three straight makes and the game headed to the tournament’s first double overtime session. Unfortunately, the momentum from three makes and new life didn’t translate into victory; Barker’s Alabama would fall three points short in the game and Maryland survived as the only four seed to advance past a five in the busy second round on the women’s side.
Barker recounted the process from getting fouled to shooting the free throws and what her mindset was in the moment, all the while leaning heavily on her faith. “The first thing that I did is I walked over Carly Weathers and I said, Pray for me, because that’s the Lord. Is who I look to for my strength, my peace. He upholds me. On my wrist, I write Isaiah, 4110 and it says, I will strengthen you. I will help you, and I will uphold you. And regardless if I would have made all three, or not all three, he would have still been my rock, and he still would have held me, held my head high, and I knew that, and that’s what Carly’s word said during my prayers.
“It was just Lord show her that if she makes these three, it’s your glory. If she misses these three, that’s how her story was written through you, and that’s how you wanted it to be. And so that’s how I went up, stepping up on every single fruit, though, was how lucky I am that the Lord has put me in that position to even do that. And that’s kind of all that. That’s exactly what I went to, was who my strength is, and that’s my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Take a look at Barker’s faith-based recap of the game below:
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video