Colonels fold in fourth quarter of 54-46 loss

Eight-point quarter costs James Wood in 54-46 loss
December 15, 2011
By Robert Stocks


WINCHESTER- After watching her team only score eight points in the fourth quarter against Washington (W.Va.) Wednesday night, James Wood girls' basketball coach Rhonda Slider said her team will likely be busy at today's practice.

Washington rallied from a four-point deficit after three quarters, getting nine points in the fourth quarter from sophomore Kylie Nelson to defeat the Colonels 54-46 at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

Nelson finished with a double-double with a game-high 17 points and 12 rebounds to lift the Patriots to their first victory of the year.

For the Colonels, Wednesday's loss was their second of the week after losing 62-41 to Stonewall Jackson on Monday.

Slider said her team struggled to get much going throughout Wednesday's non-district contest. "We weren't able to get the ball into our post, and we didn't have anybody attacking the basket," Slider said. "We were trying to dribble into traffic and we just had way too many turnovers. We had about 30 turnovers, and you're not going to win a game with 30 turnovers. We have a lot of things to work on in practice."

Washington didn't have the luxury of having a practice after a lopsided 98-24 loss to two-time Group AA state champion Millbrook on Tuesday, but the Patriots (1-4) turned in a solid effort despite a poor shooting night (15 of 62 for 24 percent) from the field.

Nelson scored nine of the Patriots' 20 fourth-quarter points, and Washington pulled away from James Wood (3-2) by going 12 for 20 from the free-throw line in the fourth.

"Last night was pretty tough and then coming back tonight but coming off a good win like this is very good," said Washington acting head coach Charity Huff. "It builds a lot of morale. It's the first tough game of the season - and the first close one - so for them to pull together and really run the stall offense and have that patience was outstanding."

James Wood led 38-34 at the end of the third quarter, but Tina Negoescu's layup put the Patriots ahead 43-42 with 4:05 left.

James Wood's Morgan Duncan hit the second of two free throws to tie it, and then Alycia Lambert went 1 for 2 from the free-throw line to put the Patriots ahead 44-43 with 3:41.

James Wood turned the ball over on its next possession after a backcourt violation, and Huff quickly called a timeout.

From there, the Patriots went into their stall, forcing the Colonels to foul and send freshman guard Morgan Adams to the line. Adams (nine points) sank both free throws to put Washington ahead 46-43 with 1:55 left.

James Wood's Brooke Nesselrodt missed a 3-pointer, and Nelson grabbed the rebound for the Patriots and Huff called another timeout with 1:30 left.

After the timeout, Washington's Amber Curry hit the first of two free throws to put the Patriots ahead 47-43 with 1:17 to go.

On the Colonels' next possession, Nesselrodt turned the ball over, stepping out of bounds on the baseline while driving to the basket.

Adams hit the second of two free throws to extend the Patriots' lead to 48-43 with one minute left, but the Colonels answered with freshman point guard Danielle Rizzari knocking down a short jumper from inside the paint to cut the Patriots' lead to 48-45 with 51 seconds remaining.

From there, James Wood missed its next three shots from the field, and Washington went 6 of 8 from the free-throw line to seal its first win.

"Our defense wasn't really on tonight," said James Wood senior Erica Hepner, who scored nine points. "We really needed to put the ball away [on offense] but I feel like our boxing out really slacked. We had to foul a lot to get the ball back [late in the game] so that hurt us a lot."

The Colonels had eight turnovers and shot just 3 for 10 from the field in the fourth quarter.

Slider said Washington did a good job controlling the boards.

"We started the game slow, and they had us outrebounded at halftime," Slider said. "They had 12 offensive [rebounds] and we had two. We didn't do a good job with that, and we didn't do a good job of seeing our post.

"I think the frustration isn't that [the game] slipped away but that we didn't play well for four quarters."

The Colonels shot just 7 for 21 (33 percent) from the field in the second half. James Wood went 11 for 26 (42 percent) from the field in the first half.

James Wood sophomore guard Whitney Dick led the Colonels with 10 points, and Miranda Moore and Hepner added nine apiece.

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