Colonel Girls Rally Back To Beat Sherando 58-48

Posted: January 17, 2015
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — For the first quarter Friday night the Sherando girls’ basketball team looked almost unstoppable.

In that first eight minutes against Northwestern District rival James Wood the Warriors blistered the nets with 12 field goals and scored 27 points in building as much as a 13-point lead and looking as though they would easily remain unbeaten in district play.

However, very little went right for the Warriors the rest of the way.

James Wood’s defense did a complete turn around and held the Warriors to a mere six field goals and 21 points over the final three quarters of the game, allowing the Colonels to rally for an important 58-48 victory over the Warriors at Wood’s Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

“Our motto here lately has been to play 32 minutes,” said James Wood coach Krista Cates. “I feel like we came out in the second half and finished that 32 minutes. Our defense in the second half stopped them and controlled them.

“We’re fighters. That’s exactly what we did, we fight and they never stop. That’s why I’m so proud of them, they never stop. It’s a team effort every day. I’m extremely proud of how we’re playing, I think we’re playing our best basketball.”

James Wood (8-3, 2-2 Northwestern District) scored the first four points of the game only to watch the Warriors answer with the next 7.

With the game tied 9-9 midway through the first quarter, Sherando (8-6, 2-1) looked to take control of the contest with a 9-2 run that they eventually extended to a 23-14 lead on a long 3-pointer by senior Heidi Brown, and later to a 13-point cushion (27-14) when fellow senior Jessica Hakel made a layup with just under a minute to play.

In the second quarter the Warriors got into some serious foul trouble, playing a large amount of it with four of their five starters sitting on the bench, and the Colonels took full advantage.

Four straight points by Wood junior Keiana Brooks to start the period pulled the Colonels to within eight at 27-19.

With 1:59 remaining in the half the Warriors still maintained an eight-point lead (33-25) and looked as if they were going to survive their first half foul woes.

But the Colonels started chipping away. Senior Danielle Rizzari and Brooks each hit a free throw and with just under a minute left senior Sarah Johnson grabbed an offensive rebound and put it home to trim the deficit to 33-29.

By the time the horn sounded ending the second quarter, the Colonels had reeled off a 10-1 run and that 13-point deficit not only no longer existed, and the Colonels headed into the locker room with confidence, momentum and a 35-34 lead.

After scoring 27 points on 12 field goals in the first quarter, the Warriors were held to just seven points on two field goals in the second.

“We played a great first quarter and we played a good second quarter until we got into foul trouble,” said Sherando coach Mike Marsh. “They were doing a good job attacking us and we weren’t where we should’ve been. Give a lot of credit to both of their guards, they did a good job pushing the ball at us.

“We had them scouted well, we knew they were going to go to the zone but we didn’t do a good job executing and that goes back to me. We were playing like we were behind instead of being ahead five or six points [in the second quarter]. We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to get our bench better and understand what our roles are. It’s disappointing because we hoped to come in here and capture this win. We thought we were prepared, but obviously we didn’t prepare them well enough.”

Not quite two minutes into the second half the Warriors took their final lead of the game when senior Audra Sites scored from the paint to make it 38-37 in favor of the Warriors.

Senior Kaitlyn Crane’s layup with 5:22 left on the clock gave the Colonels back the lead for good and sparked a 10-0 run that made it 47-38, and Wood held a comfortable 49-39 lead after three quarters of play.

“At halftime we knew we needed to step it up on defense,” Rizzari said. “We are coming together as a team and helping each other out when we’re down. We are just staying positive and not taking anything lightly.”

With the two teams playing to a 9-9 deadlock in the fourth quarter, the Warriors will be forced to look at the middle two quarters where the Colonel defense held them to just three made field goals and outscored them 34-12.

Brooks led the way for the Colonels, registering a double-double with game-highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds. Rizzari added 15 points for the Colonels, while Morgan Duncan chipped in with nine points.

Hakel led the way for the Warriors with 16 points. Brown added 11 points, but was held scoreless in the second half, and Sites finished with nine points for the Warriors.