Cain Scores 38 As Handley Girls Bounce James Wood

Posted: January 16, 2016
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Handley senior Jay Cain nearly outscored James Wood by herself.

To be exact, Cain bested — or equaled — James Wood’s team point up until there were only 20 seconds left in the girls’ basketball contest.

Cain poured in a career-high 38 points to lead three Handley players in double figures as the Judges rolled to a 72-41 Conference 21A victory over James Wood at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Friday night.

Judges senior Alysandra Worrell added 15 points and six rebounds and senior Angelica Robinson finished with 13 points and had a game-high 18 rebounds.

“I think that was our best all-around effort all year,” said Handley coach Randi Jones. “Jay has been our leading scorer and she’s our top threat outside and we constantly tell her ‘you’ve got to take it inside.’ Today, she missed some shots from long range and started attacking the basket and started getting to the line. That started to build some confidence for her to hit some shots from outside, and I think that just generated confidence all the way around [for us].”

Cain certainly showed an all-around offensive game against the Colonels (7-4, 1-3 conference, 1-2 Northwestern District).

After James Wood opened the game on a 6-0 run, Cain scored Handley’s first six points to even the score and ignite an 18-3 run by the Judges.

After Colonels senior Keiana Brooks knocked down a 3-pointer, Cain answered with one of her own to knot the score at 9.

From there, the Judges (9-3, 2-1 conference, 2-1 district) scored the final nine points of the quarter. Five of those came from Cain, who knocked down a pair of free throws and capped the quarter with her second 3-pointer for 14 of her team’s 18 points as Handley led by nine.

James Wood tried to keep it close early in the second, cutting the deficit to four after a three-point play from Brooks trimmed Handley’s lead to 18-14 with 6:36 left.

But the Judges answered with eight straight points, getting four from Cain and Robinson capped the run with a jumper to put Handley ahead 26-14 midway through the quarter.

Handley’s lead never dipped below double digits from there as the Judges closed the half on a 7-1 run to take a 35-19 advantage.

Cain had 21 points at the break as the Colonels struggled to get much going on offense. James Wood shot just 8 of 34 (23 percent) from the field in the first half.

Cain credited her team’s effort on the boards and on the defensive end.

“It was mostly who was going to get the rebound and we had to get the rebound and push the ball,” said Cain, who played her first three varsity seasons at Millbrook before transferring to Handley this year. “We pretty much did what we were supposed to do. We had to keep our energy up and stay positive. That was our main goal because we get down on ourselves sometimes.”

The Judges kept their energy level up throughout the contest and Handley’s players seemed to feed off Cain’s scoring.

Cain’s ability to attack the basket led to two trips to the free-throw line in the first two minutes of the second half and she knocked down all four free throws to extend Handley’s lead to 41-23.

She hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Robinson followed with a putback to cap a 10-4 run that pushed the Judges’ lead to 51-27 that forced a Colonel timeout with 4:02 left in the third. At that point, Cain had 31 points, 10 coming in the quarter.

Worrell added Handley’s final six of the period to stake the Judges to a 57-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

When the Judges did miss — and more importantly when the Colonels missed — Robinson and Taneisha Walker (12 rebounds) cleaned up on the boards.

“We crashed the boards and did the little things really well and that just opened it up for some good shots,” Jones said. “We wanted to play with energy and allow it to make good things happen.

“Rebounding was key and we out-rebounded them 60-40 (41-25 in defensive rebounds).”

“We never really let anything [tonight] affect us,” said Robinson, who entered the contest averaging an area-best 13.9 rebounds. “We were keeping our heads up and playing well together and kept looking for one another.”

Cain knocked down her fifth 3-pointer of the contest early in the fourth and added a pair of layups to Handley ahead 66-36 with 4:25 left.

At that point, Cain went to the bench with 38 points — two more than the Colonels.

“It’s a good team win and we needed it because it’s a conference game so that helps,” said Cain, who went 11 for 12 from the free-throw line as she eclipsed her previous career-best of 33 set earlier this year. “We just needed to win.”

Only four Handley players — Cain, Worrell, Robinson and Walker (six points) — factored in the scoring. Madi Woodson, the only Handley starter who didn’t score, pulled down seven rebounds.

Brooks, who led James Wood with 19 points and had eight rebounds, four steals and three assists, hit a deep 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to keep the Colonels from having the same amount of points as Cain.

“I think they wanted it a lot more than we did,” said Brooks, who now stands just 13 points shy of the 1,000-point mark for her career. “They definitely hustled more than we did at times and we just didn’t get into a groove. We didn’t get our momentum going like we usually do.”

The Colonels struggled offensively, shooting just 16 of 77 (20 percent) from the field. Wood went just 3 of 16 (18 percent) from 3-point range.

“We didn’t show up to play basketball at all,” said James Wood coach Krista Crites. “For four quarters [Handley] showed up to play and they beat us in every aspect of the game. Rebounding, shooting — and Jay [Cain] had a great game. She had 38 points against us. She came ready to play and we didn’t come ready to stop that. No matter what defense I put in — I’m just not sure where [we] were. It’s just a bad game and move on tomorrow and start preparing for Monday.”

Grace Greene added eight points and a team-high 17 rebounds for the Colonels.

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