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When they arrived at Elizabeth Seton High School as freshmen four years ago, Roadrunners' seniors Tyaunna Marshall and Alexis Martin were new faces to the basketball program at the Bladensburg school. But they were hardly new to one another, having previously spent four years playing together with the Maryland Lady Jaguars AAU team.

Monday evening at Bender Arena on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C., Marshall and Martin capped an improbable four-year run by leading the Roadrunners to a 74-64 victory over St. John's in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game. Marshall, who is headed to Georgia Tech University this fall, led all scorers with 30 points and Martin added 13 as the Roadrunners captured their first WCAC title since 2001.

"When we first got to Seton, we had a losing record our freshman year and I never knew something like this could happen," Marshall said. "Me and Alexis had been playing together since we were 10 and we knew that we could help rebuild the program. We've been working really hard for this all season. All of the seniors stayed together and talked about getting to this game. It's really difficult to describe. It's such an emotional time right now."

Martin scored the Roadrunners' first five points, but didn't score again until midway through the third quarter. She had four points, including two clutch free throws, late in the fourth quarter when the Cadets were fouling Seton players in a desperate attempt to extend the game. Martin, who is still undecided about her college plans this fall, was considerably more optimistic about the Roadrunners' chances for a title when she first enrolled in the school.

"Me and Tyaunna had been playing together with the Lady Jaguars for four years before we came here and I knew what she was capable of doing," Martin said. "She's amazing. For her to score 30 points in the championship game is special. When we first came here, I really thought we could do something special for the school. After last year's loss to Holy Cross [in the WCAC semifinals] we all knew that we had to work harder to get back here."

Seton fourth-year coach Jazz Perazic said she spent the slightly more than 24 hours between Sunday's semifinal win against Paul VI (Va.) Catholic and Monday's title game watching film of St. John's, including her team's two regular season meetings against the Cadets – both of which the Roadrunners won.

"I watched film [Sunday] night and I watched film [Monday] to get ready for this," Perazic said. "They're a lot like us. Both teams are patient on offense and neither team likes to trap. We knew there was only so many things that we could take away from them. If we stopped their inside players, that would open up their 3-point shooters. If we put pressure on their outside shooters, that would hurt us inside. You can only do so much to stop the other team."

Both shot well from the floor early in the game. The Roadrunners connected on eight consecutive field goals after Jazmine Missouri missed the first shot of the game, and St. John's made its first four shots and two free throws to stay within a point at 13-12. But the rest of the first quarter belonged to the Roadrunners, who closed out the period on a 10-0 run to claim a 23-12 advantage.

Seton maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second quarter until St. John's guard Nicola Zimmer hit a 3-pointer and was fouled on the shot and added the free throw to get the Cadets within seven at 29-22. But St. John's committed turnovers on four of its last five possessions of the second quarter, and two late baskets by Marshall pushed the Roadrunners' advantage to 35-24 at the intermission.

Seton led by double digits throughout the third quarter and stretched the margin to 17 at 59-42 midway through the fourth quarter on consecutive buckets from Martin and Marshall. But St. John's proceeded to chip away at its deficit, and layups by Lindsay Allen and Zimmer narrowed the margin to 65-59 with 1:18 remaining.

But the last 75 seconds belonged, fittingly, to the Roadrunners' seniors. Marshall hit 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch, and Martin and Julia Weatherly each hit two foul shots, putting Seton ahead by 10 points before Zimmer connected on another 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining. Weatherly, who is heading to Monmouth University this fall, had six points and 11 rebounds for the Roadrunners.