Go-To Players Returning For Area Girls’ Basketball Teams

Posted: December 5, 2014
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With eight of the area’s top 10 scoring leaders returning, the local high school girls’ basketball teams get the luxury of having most of their go-to players back for the 2014-15 season.

Clarke County returns senior Sydney Chrane, who led the area in scoring (18.2 points per game, 7.7 rebounds per game, 3.3 steals per game, 2.0 assists per game and 1.7 blocks per game), and senior Anna Blue Catlett (14.7 ppg). Both Chrane and Catlett, a pair of first team All-Bull Run District selections who have already eclipsed the 1,000 career-point mark for the Eagles, lead a Clarke County team that hopes to build on last season’s 21-4 (13-2 Bull Run) record.

Clarke took a big step in the Bull Run District opener, getting a game-high 20-point performance from Catlett and 16 points from Chrane in a decisive 60-46 victory over George Mason in Falls Church Wednesday night.

“That was a big win for us and always a tough place to play down there,” said Clarke County second-year coach Regina Downing. “It’s a big momentum boost for us. But our primary goal is to take each game one at a time. We’d like to get to the state championship — and possibly win it — but we have to take it one game at time.”

The Eagles (2-0), are averaging 69 points per game in their first two victories and return four starters from last year’s team that reached the regional quarterfinals.

While Clarke returns its top two options on offense, every area team returns at least one player who ranked in the top 10 in scoring a season ago. Millbrook lost leading scorer and Northwestern District Player of the Year Brenna Cook (17.0 ppg) to graduation (she’s now a freshman at Marymount University in Arlington), but Pioneers junior Lauren Reed (16.7 ppg, 4.2 apg), a first team All-Northwestern District selection, returns to lead what should be another talented team with the addition of a freshmen class that includes Maddie Green (former Pioneer Courtni Green’s sister), sister Erika Reed and post players Amari Anthony and Haile McDonald.

“We’ve got four freshmen who are going to have to give us a lot of time,” Millbrook coach Kevin Barr said. “It’s going to be an experiment to hopefully put it together by the middle and end of the year to where we’re playing our best basketball.

“We’re definitely a talented group. It’s just a matter of getting some playing time together and learning what each other does best. If we get some chemistry going we’ll be hard to stop.”

The Pioneers have been just about unstoppable in district play, going unbeaten (8-0) in the Northwestern a season ago and they own a 15-1 district mark over the past two seasons.

Millbrook opened the season Monday with a 46-43 victory over a Broadway team that played in the 3A state championship game last season, and while some of the faces have changed, the mission remains the same.

“Our goal is simple — we expect to win when we take the court,” Barr said. “We have a tough schedule and we hope that gets us prepared to play a little bit faster than normal. We’re just going to take it game by game.”

A couple area rivals hope to give Millbrook a game this season in fellow Frederick County foes Sherando and James Wood.

The Warriors return four senior starters, including first team All-Northwestern District selection Jess Hakel (12.0 ppg, 2.3 apg, 3.4 spg) and second team All-District selection Heidi Brown (11.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg and an area-best 3.6 blocks), point guard Erin Magalis (3.2 apg) and Audra Sites (8.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 3.4 spg).

Sherando coach Mike Marsh said his team spent a lot of time on offseason conditioning and strength training with the hopes of being better prepared for Conference 21 opponents.

“Every year you’re trying to get to the playoffs and advance and we ran into a really good Loudoun County team [last year],” Marsh said. “We focused on strength and endurance and hope that gives us a little more physicality. [Loudoun County] beat us up and we weren’t ready for that. Loudoun County and Woodgrove are two very good schools that we’ll have to get through to get to the next level.”

James Wood, led by junior second team All-Northwestern District selections Keiana Brooks (11.3 ppg, 3.5 apg and an area-best 4.6 spg) and senior Danielle Rizzari (8.9 ppg, a team-best 4.4 apg and 2.7 spg), give the Colonels a pair of proven scorers on a team that hopes to improve on last season’s 12-10 record.

Colonels coach Krista Crites said her players have worked to improve their overall team defense.

“This group is more defensive minded and that’s kind of been our focus so far,” said Crites. “We’ve found the better defense we play, the better our offense is and this group has finally realized that.”

First-year Handley coach Randi Jones takes over for Marvin Scott and inherits a pair of returning All-Northwestern District players in Alysandra Worrell (17.1 ppg, an area-best 4.7 apg, and 4.2 spg) and Angelica Robinson (10.2 ppg, an area-best 12.1 rpg, and 2.4 bpg).

Jones said developing a solid supporting cast around Worrell (a first team All-Northwestern District selection) and Robinson (a second team all-district selection) will be critical.

“We’re still pretty young but we have experience,” Jones said. “They’re working very hard and we have so much potential to be versatile on offense and defense. The key will be my new kids stepping up and being able to give good minutes so [Worrell and Robinson] don’t get worn down throughout the season.”

Although the conference tournaments are now the first part of the postseason, Marsh said the district’s regular season (which determines seeding for the conference tournaments) still means a lot.

“No matter what [the district] is important locally,” Marsh said. “It’s bragging rights and you want to be the best team in this part of the state. It’s important to the girls.”

Shenandoah Valley Christian Academy must replace Sam Yarnall (15.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.7 apg, 4.3 spg), who moved to Georgia, from last year’s team that won its third straight VACA state title. Grace Snyder (10.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.3 spg) and Carol Bartholomew (8.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.9 bpg) give the team a pair of proven scoring options.

“We’re still returning three starters who are used to playing with each other,” said SVCA coach Laurie Culler, whose team finished 20-8 last year. “We’re working on developing some guard play. Carol is a big asset but ball movement on the outside will be critical. We’ll try to use that in addition to our post play.”

Here’s a glance at the area teams:

Millbrook

Coach: Kevin Barr, first year

Last year: 20-5 (8-0 Northwestern) This season: 1-0

Key losses: Brenna Cook, Liz McDonald, Casey Ackerman

Top returning players: Mia VanderToorn, Sr. G; Lauren Reed, Jr. G; Joneisha Cain, Jr. F; Kelli White, Soph. G; Lily Treiber, Soph. F.

Top newcomers: Maddie Green, Fr. PG; Erika Reed, Fr. G; Tymber Minnick, Soph. SF; Amari Anthony, Fr. Post; Haile McDonald, Fr. Post.

Barr’s outlook: “We’re a really good ball-handling team and we’ll be hard to press. Teams shouldn’t be able to press us very well. We’re a good passing and shooting team. We don’t have a lot of height but we play hard. Shooting-wise we should be one of the better teams in the district.”

Next game: Saturday, at Handley, 6 p.m.

Sherando

Coach: Mike Marsh, second year

Last year: 14-7 (5-3 Northwestern) This season: 0-1

Key losses: Alaina Combs

Top returning players: Jessica Hakel, Sr. G; Heidi Brown, Sr. G/F; Erin Magalis, Sr. PG; Audra Sites, Sr. G; Madison Leckie, Jr. G; Davina Lane, Soph. G; Allison Combs, Jr. F.; Catherine Price, Soph. G; Rebecca Travis, Soph. G; Rachel Kelliher Jr. G.

Top newcomers: Kathryn Robertson, Fr. G; Kali Kremer, Jr. G.

Marsh’s outlook: “We’ve worked hard on very specific things and skills that we needed to improve on. We had a nice year going 14-7 last season and hope to improve on that this year. Our perimeter shooting and defensive alignment and rotations — we needed to improve on some things there. We’re playing our defense with a little more trapping and we’ve worked on transition, getting back on defense and pushing the ball [on offense]. We think we have some pretty good athletes so we’re hoping to take advantage of their abilities.”

Next game: Tonight, vs. Broadway, 7:30 p.m.

Clarke County

Coach: Regina Downing, second year

Last year: 21-4 (13-2 Bull Run District) This season: 2-0

Key losses: Stephanie Nelson, Anna Bodkin, Rebecca Acland, Allegra Eyles, Montana Clark.

Top returning players: Sydney Chrane, Sr. F; Anna Blue Catlett, Sr. F; Allie Hicks, Sr. C; Hannah Ravenscroft, Jr. G; Kolby Parrott, Sr. G; Jade Payton, Soph. PG; Kenzie Kibler, Sr. F.

Top newcomers: Megan Hicks, Fr. G; Emily Welton, Fr. F; Megan Withers, Soph. G.

Downing’s outlook: “Our primary goal is to learn to adapt who were are as a team and who we are as players. We need to adapt and do the little things we need to do. They’ve played well together and know each other well. We’re strong defensively and pretty strong offensively. We have our two bigs [Chrane and Allie Hicks] and that opens things up for us. Our guard play has gotten better and that’s going to be key with their ability to handle the press and get ball into our bigs.”

Next game: Tonight, vs. Madison, 7:45 p.m.

James Wood

Coach: Krista Crites, second year

Last year: 12-10 (2-6 Northwestern) This season: 2-0

Key losses: Brooke Nesselrodt, Whitney Dick, Laura Seymour, Taylor Heishman

Top returning players: Keiana Brooks, Jr. G; Danielle Rizzari, Sr. G; Sarah Johnson, Sr. C; Morgan Duncan, Sr. F; Emily Woods-Hulse, Sr. F; Hannah Arnold, Soph. F.

Top newcomers: Randi Pusey, Soph. G; Rebecca Ferrulli, Jr. G; Jordan Minnick, Jr. G/F.

Crites’ outlook: “My defense is definitely a strength and outside shooting has improved tremendously. The scoring is more evenly spaced out which takes pressure off Dani and Keiana. We want to bring more pressure and we’re very fast. This team they seem to have more chemistry and they’ve played together for years. The five seniors I’ve had since middle school so they’ve played together for a long time. The record should be better, but that’s ultimately up to the kids.”

Next game: Monday, vs. Dominion, 7:30 p.m.

Handley

Coach: Randi Jones, first year

Last year: 5-14 (3-5 Northwestern) This season: 1-1

Key losses: Scarlett Hutchins

Top returning players: Angelica Robinson, Jr. F; Alysandra Worrell, Jr. PG; Miriah Smith, Sr. G; Madison Woodson, Jr. Hannah Long, Jr. G; Taneisha Walker, Soph. G.

Top newcomers: Haley Swartz, Soph. F; Xavian Bell, Jr. G/F.

Jones’ outlook: “I’m hoping with [Worrell and Robinson] — they’ve been go-to players — that kids aren’t always just looking at them so we can get more offense from other people. Defensively, I just want us being a stronger unit and pressuring people. Offensively, I hope we’ll be able to get more offensive production out of more people instead of relying on [Worrell and Robinson]. I’m hoping that leadership will be spread out.”

Next game: Saturday, vs. Millbrook, 6 p.m.

SVCA

Coach: Laurie Culler, eighth year

Last year: 20-8, three-time defending VACA North Region and VACA state champs This season: 1-1

Key loss: Sam Yarnall

Top returning players: Grace Snyder, Jr. G; Hannah McGann, Sr. PG; Carol Bartholomew, Sr. C; Mary Culler, Jr. F; Kristen Hotek, Sr. G.

Top newcomers: Krista Freemire, Sr. G; Susannah Green, Fr. C; Mia Irvin, Fr. Post; Cora Snyder, Fr. PG.

Culler’s outlook: “We’re trying to share [the scoring responsibilities] and it’s hard to find one player to replace a player like [Yarnall]. We’re going to distribute the wealth. That’s kind of been the philosophy so far. We have four games in five days this week and it’s kind of baptism by fire but the more we play together the more we’re going to improve.”

Next game: Tonight, vs. TBA in SVCA Tip-Off Tournament, 6 p.m.

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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