Girl's Basketball vs Clarke County

Posted: February 3, 2014
By GREG BRILL
Special to The Winchester Star

BERRYVILLE — Anna Blue Catlett was somewhat humble after the special game she had for Clarke County during Saturday night’s non-district girls’ basketball game with James Wood.

Already part of a solid one-two scoring punch with fellow junior forward Sydney Chrane, Catlett took a little urging from Eagles coach Regina Downing to look for her shot even more, and a little sooner, against the Colonels.

Catlett took that advice to heart and unloaded on James Wood for a career-best 28 points to lead the Eagles to a 58-36 win.

“My coach really emphasizes for me to shoot whenever I get the opportunity, so I’ve been working on that and I really felt it [Saturday],” said Catlett, who hit on 9 of 18 shots from the field (including a trio of 3-pointers) and 7 of 9 from the foul line. “When I was open, I’d pop the [jumper] and if not, I’d just go drive to the basket.”

The Eagles (16-2 and winners of eight straight) followed whatever plan Downing had in place right from the start, bolting to an 18-6 lead after one period and playing sound defensively to limit the Colonels, who were again without standout sophomore point guard Keiana Brooks (injured ankle), to four made baskets in the first half.

Besides having Catlett (16 points) and Chrane (10) already in double-figure scoring by halftime, the Eagles rotated well through their defense to limit dribble penetration and to get a hand out on shooters to race to a 34-14 lead by the break.

“I figured in the first half that the kids played real well,” Downing said. “They got after it and did some great things in the first half of the game. I was real pleased with how they executed and moved without the ball a little bit and were able to get the ball inside and didn’t force the issue. We were patient and made the extra pass, so I was real pleased with that.”

For much of the season, Chrane has been the go-to scorer for Clarke County with her ability to hurt opponents both inside and out with her shot. But against the Colonels, Chrane chose to work her way into the flow in the early minutes. In fact, Chrane did not take a shot in the first period and assisted on two baskets.

Instead, it was Catlett (12 first-period points) who was a bundle for the Colonels (11-7) to deal with almost from the tip. Junior center Allie Hicks scored on a dump-down to open the scoring and Catlett followed by coasting in with a steal at the 7:12 mark for a 4-0 lead. James Wood got on the board as junior guard Danielle Rizzari stepped back to drain a 3-pointer with 6:31 left to cut the deficit to 4-3, but it would be over five minutes until the Colonels would hit their next (and last) basket of the first period.

As the Colonels continued to struggle to score (2 of 9 shooting, seven turnovers in the first period), the Eagles opened things up by going on a 10-0 run. Hicks again scored in close and Catlett reeled off eight straight points — knocking down back-to-back 3s from the right wing and getting second-chance points on a runner in the lane — to make it 14-3 with 1:34 left.

The Eagles got baskets by Catlett and reserve junior guard Kolby Parrott before the end of the period to swell the lead to 12. It was the kind of start Clarke County (61 percent shooting from the field in the first half) was hoping for against James Wood, and the momentum carried over well into the second period when Chrane (16 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks) got going by scoring 10 of the Eagles’ 16 points in the quarter.

“I think defensively we played pretty decent,” James Wood coach Krista Crites said. “I know they beat us by 22 points, but with Anna Blue and Sydney — it’s hard to stop both of them.”

The Colonels picked up their play well beginning in the third quarter and were even in striking distance several minutes into the fourth period. The Eagles hit a lull in the third, when they scored just one basket and had five points total. The Colonels managed just eight, but they did get a good spark from junior guard Kaitlyn Crane (six points in the period) when she came in for the first time. In the early minutes of the fourth, another substitute playing her first minutes, junior forward Grace Greene, hit three straight shots near the basket, and just like that, James Wood was back in the game.

The Colonels cut their deficit to 14 on three occasions in the fourth, the final time on a basket in the lane by Greene to make it 43-29 with 6:17 left.

“Kaitlyn Crane has done a great job for us the past couple games,” Crites said. “Grace Greene, six points tonight and [four] points last night. Perfect. And [even] Emily [Woods-Hulse] had two points right off the bench [late]. The bench play was there and I thought we did a much better job in the second half offensively. We just dug ourselves a hole in the first [half].”

Just when it seemed like the Colonels were making a serious threat to come all the way back, the Eagles hit a crucial run. And Catlett was right in the middle of it again to rescue Clarke County.

A pair of free throws by Chrane got the lead back up to 16, and Catlett hit a 3-pointer with 4:13 left. On the Eagles’ next possession, Chrane scored off a drive to cap a 7-0 run and send Clarke County up 50-29 with 3:56 left.

“James Wood really picked up their defense in the third [period] and we kind of lost our heads a little bit,” Catlett said. “It was good [being able to respond late]. It was a very positive thing to see.”

The Colonels never got closer than 18 after that as Catlett scored the last four points of the game and finished off another bookend quarter well with 11 points in the fourth.

It’s been a good week for Catlett. On Thursday, Catlett hit two free throws in the final seconds to lift the Eagles to a crucial 61-60 Bull Run District win at Central. Two days later, Catlett established a new career-high for points, eclipsing the 25 she scored in a win at Madison County earlier this season.

“It was good for her to come out strong,” Downing said. “I talked to her at halftime and I said, ‘Hey, you can’t just put up a good strong first half, you’ve got to put all four quarters together.’ I was really pleased with how she came out very aggressive and took control early.”

Even though it has been a highly successful season so far for the Eagles, Downing would like to see her team keep the focus a little better for four quarters. Having a rough patch like they did in the third shows that the Eagles still have some things to fine tune.

“It’s like a lack of focus,” Downing said. “They see when we go in [at the half] that we’re up big and that they can take a break. And I tell them, once we have a team down we’ve got to learn to keep them down. And we’ve got to push and go forward. We have a tendency sometimes to get lackadaisical with spurts and whatnot. We just have to learn to put all four quarters together, and that’s what we’re working on.”

The Colonels got six points apiece in their loss from Crane, Greene, senior guard Brooke Nesselrodt, and junior forward Morgan Duncan.