Seven was indeed a lucky number this winter for John Marshall High School girls’ basketball, and a most unlucky number for the Justices’ foes.

Quality trumped quantity for the school on Richmond’s North Side.

With a bare bones roster of seven, the Justices came within a referee’s controversial call of reaching the State 3A final.

“We were seven strong,” said Coach Travis Richardson, Class of 1998. “Our motto was ‘Seven deep, no sleep.’

“We were determined not to rest until we achieved our goals.”

John Marshall High won the Conference 26 title in late February and the Region 3A East title on March 7 with these seven:

• Seniors Jasmine Carter and Ze’Nya Butler

• Juniors Naterria Luster, Dajouniek Wingfield and Mallsheena Banks

• Sophomore Deija Joyner and

• Freshman Nadine Pope.

Coach Richardson shrugged off his thin roster, saying “most schools have a first rotation of seven ... and the rest are just for show.”

The seven members racked up individual awards and statistics aplenty.

Butler and Luster were first-team All-Conference, with Banks second team. Luster was All-Region first team and Butler second team.

Butler averaged 18 points and three assists.

Luster averaged 13 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

Long-limbed 6-foot-2 Carter averaged 10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Wingfield averaged 10 points, four assists and two steals.

The Justices’ season ended in exasperating fashion March 10 in the state semifinals at the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Leading 50-49 in the final seconds, John Marshall was charged with a shooting foul — during a frantic battle for a rebound — that sent a member of competing team Broadway High School of Rockingham County to the foul line for two shots with two seconds on the clock. She made both shots to give the Harrisonburg area school the 51-50 victory.

“I don’t have a problem with the foul, but I don’t think it should have been a shooting foul,” Coach Richardson said.

Because Broadway High was not in the bonus, no foul shots would have been awarded if it were a common foul.

Broadway High simply would have taken the ball out of bounds with scant time to operate.

The next night, Broadway lost in overtime to Turner Ashby High School of Bridgewater in the 3A final that John Marshall High so longed to be part of.

“It was a big-time heartbreaker,” said Coach Richardson of the gut-wrenching final game.