Wood Girls Dig Deep To Beat Sherando, 45-41

Posted: January 21, 2014
By KEVIN TRUDGEON

STEPHENS CITY — There aren’t a lot of must-win games in January, but Monday’s contest was about as close at it gets for the James Wood girls’ basketball team.

Winless in the Northwestern District and riding a two-game losing streak that included a come-from-ahead loss to Skyline in which both Brooke Nesselrodt (knee) and Keiana Brooks (ankle) suffered injuries, the Colonels were battered and bruised and needed to get better in a hurry.

Turns out a trip to Sherando was just what the doctor ordered.

After falling behind early in the game, James Wood outscored the host Warriors in each of the final three quarters to pull out a 45-41 win that could not have come at a better time.

“It was extremely important, we needed this, we did not want to start 0-3 in the district,” said James Wood first-year coach Krista Crites. “We had a tough loss on Friday [54-53 to Skyline], and an even worse one on Saturday [53-32 to Luray] without Keiana and Brooke, so we needed this one.”

Getting Brooks and Nesselrodt, who both sat out against Luray, back in the starting lineup was definitely a boost for the Colonels (10-4, 1-2 Northwestern District), but the win was a total team effort.

Every player who saw the floor for James Wood scored, with many of the baskets coming as a result of good ball movement.

Sherando (9-5, 2-2) started off strong, using a 9-0 run that was capped by back-to-back baskets by junior Jessica Hakel (eight points and six rebounds) to go up 11-5 early on the in the first quarter.

But while the Warriors would eventually stretch that lead to nine in the second quarter following a drive by sophomore Madison Leckie, the rest of the first half would belong to the James Wood.

Junior point guard Danielle Rizzari (six points, four steals, three assists) answered Leckie’s score with a drive of her own, senior Laura Seymour found freshman Taylor Heishman (eight points and six rebounds) for a basket in the paint and Brooks picked off one of her seven steals in the game and finished at the other end.

“Getting steals really gets me going and just helps our team,” said Brooks, who finished with a game-high 14 points, most of which came off steals or in transition. “All year coach has been telling us that our thing needs to be defense, defense, defense and our 3-2 [zone] worked really well.”

Three free throws and a late basket by senior Whitney Dick off a pass from Nesselrodt in the lane cut Sherando’s lead to 23-21 just before halftime and the Colonels kept at it in the third quarter.

After trading scores early on in the third quarter, with Sherando keeping pace behind junior Heidi Brown and freshman Davina Lane (team-high nine points apiece), Heishman scored off a feed from Dick to put James Wood up 29-28 and the Colonels would never trail again.

“I thought their inside game hurt us more than anything,” said Sherando first-year coach Mike Marsh. “They had not had an inside presence before and while we’re not very big, we play good team defense. But we just did not do a good job rotating down and they got a few easy baskets there where we’d rotate stop one player and our backside didn’t rotate down to help. We don’t normally give those up.”

Heishman and fellow post player Sarah Johnson were the recipients of a handful of passes from teammates after their defender had left to help and they made the Warriors pay.

Up 33-32 heading to the fourth quarter after a jumper just before the buzzer from Leckie off a drive and kick from junior Erin Magalis made it a one-point game, James Wood found some breathing room thanks to a pair of three-point plays.

The first came from Seymour on a drive down the lane where she was awarded continuation after drawing a reach-in foul and the second came after Johnson took a pass from Dick under the basket, took a bump and still managed to knock down the shot.

Both players made their ensuing free throws, and Dick followed up a miss of her own in between the two, and suddenly the Colonels held a 43-34 lead.

“Their defense started slacking off and we took advantage of that,” Crites said. “Those are the things I keep telling them we’re going to have to do, to keep pounding away and not let up and play for four quarters and I thought we did that tonight.”

Late baskets by Brown and Magalis twice cut the deficit to four, but Rizzari knocked down a pair of free throws and Sherando simply ran out of time.

For the game the Warriors shot just 17 for 53 (32 percent), turned the ball over 18 times and were limited to just two 3-pointers.

“It’s a disappointing loss because we didn’t play our best ball, but hats off to James Wood, they had a nice plan,” Marsh said. “We kenw we were going to see that 3-2 zone, they just did a better job executing it that we did running offenses against it.

“We had a whole arsenal of offenses to run against it, we just settled for long-ranges shots instead of punching the ball inside or penetrating. We played frustrated and I have to give James Wood credit for that, they did just enough to get us frustrated and get a lead and they held on to that lead.”

The Colonels didn’t shoot much better from the field (17 for 51) and had 19 turnovers of their own, but they finished 11 for 15 from the free-throw line and managed to get back on the winning track in the process.

“I hope it’s a turning point for them,” Crites said. “I think they’ve finally realized that they’re capable of winning when they play well and if they don’t show up they’re going to lose. They’ve been on both ends now, so hopefully we turn around and keep going forward and not two steps back.”

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