James Wood Girls Rough Up Fauquier 90-20 To Start Season

Posted: December 4, 2013
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — If opening night of the Krista Crites era was any indication, the James Wood High school girls’ basketball program is in good hands.

The Colonels scored 16 of the first 18 points Tuesday night and rolled over visiting Fauquier 90-20 in the season-opener for both teams at Wood’s Shirley Gymnasium.

“For a first game I can’t ask for anymore,” said the first-year Wood coach, who took over after Rhonda Slider stepped down last season. “Ninety points for a girls team is amazing in general. I’m truly proud of them, they played hard all the way through for four quarters and they know I push that. It looks good for the future.”

With the game out of hand early, Crites was able to utilize her entire roster at will, getting quality minutes for all 11 players that were dressed and each found their way into the scoring column in one form or another.

Senior Brooke Nesselrodt was one of three Colonels to reach double figures with a game-high 16 points and added a team-high seven assists, while classmate Whitney Dick registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

After sophomore Keiana Brooks got the Colonels (1-0) on the board with a fast-break layup, Nesselrodt scored eight of Wood’s next 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, to put James Wood up 12-2. The only bucket Nesselrodt didn’t have during that stretch was another fast-break layup by Brooks.

Nesselrodt scored 10 points in the first quarter and guided the Colonels to a more than comfortable 28-6 advantage after one quarter of play.

“We’ve really worked on defense and distributing the ball more evenly to everyone,” Nesselrodt said. “[It] makes [us] more of a threat and tougher to defend.”

Fauquier (0-1) had issues holding onto the ball all evening long, but especially in the first half. The Falcons had 10 turnovers in the first quarter alone and another 11 in the second, leading to numerous easy opportunities for the Colonels.

Wood continued to pour it on and expand its lead in the second quarter, holding the Falcons to a mere three points for the entire quarter while pouring in another 24 of its own and pushing the margin to a breathtaking 52-9 at the half.

It was Brooks who led the way in the second frame, scoring eight of her 12 points while helping the Colonels hold the Falcons to single digits in the first half of play.

Any thoughts of a record-setting come-from-behind win for the visitors were quickly put to rest when the Colonels scored 18 of the first 20 points of the second half and outscored the Falcons 20-4 in the third quarter for a 72-13 lead through three quarters of play.

“I thought my posts stepped up [Tuesday], they did a wonderful job,” Crites said. “All 11 players scored, Whitney Dick had a double-double. All of them did an amazing job, we had three in double figures as far as scoring and the scoring was distributed evenly among everyone and that’s going to make it difficult to play against.”