Colonel Girls Clamp Down On Judges In 52-33 Victory

Posted: January 31, 2015
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — In the midst of its first losing streak of the season — albeit a modest two-game slide — the James Wood girls’ basketball team was in need of an important Northwestern District victory when they traveled to rival Handley on Friday night, a team it had lost to just four weeks ago.

Notorious for their slow starts this season, the Colonels have played some of their worst basketball in the first quarter of games, only to turn it around with three outstanding quarters of defensive basketball.

Friday night was no different. Wood struggled out of the gate, fell behind by six points and allowed Handley to score 20 points in the first quarter, but the Colonels rebounded like they have some many times this season.

Over the final three quarters the Colonels shut Handley down, allowing only 13 points the rest of the way and picking up a 52-33 at Handley’s Maddex-Omps gymnasium.

“We start slow, but once we start we’re kinda hard to stop, like a train,” James Wood coach Krista Crites said. “I changed our defense up tonight to limit [Handley’s Angelica Robinson and Alysandra Worrell] and I thought as a team they did terrific. We held both of their two well below their average, which is what we wanted to do. We dared other players to beat us and I thought my girls as a team did an excellent job.

“I’ve been preaching defense all year and it hasn’t been the greatest, but tonight they stepped up. I’m very proud of them. This is a game they really wanted. We needed this win for districts and they played well as a whole.”

Midway through the first quarter Handley (12-5, 3-4 Northwestern District) broke a 4-4 tie with a 6-0 run to build its biggest lead of the game. A long 3-pointer by Robinson, a short jumper by Miriah Smith, and a free throw by Worrell gave the Judges a 10-4 advantage with just over four minutes to play in the first.

The Judges maintained that six-point lead and had a 16-10 advantage with 1:33 left in the first thanks to a pair of 3-pointers, one by Worrell and another one from Robinson.

However James Wood (12-5, 3-4) answered with a run of its own. Dani Rizzari knocked down a 3-pointer and Keiana Brooks hit back-to-back short jumpers to give Wood a 17-16 lead with 0:25 remaining in the first.

On the next trip down the floor Robinson hit her third trey of the game and was fouled on the shot, giving her and the Judges a four-point play after she hit the free throw and a 20-17 lead with 0:15 left, and they led 20-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.

As hot as Handley was in the first quarter (seven field goals, four 3-pointers and 20 points) it was just as cold or colder in the second quarter. The Judges were held to just two points and didn’t make a field goal, missing all 13 shots they took.

The Colonels took full advantage of the Handley cold spell and took the lead for good with four straight points to start the quarter. A layup by Hannah Arnold and a short jumper by Kaitlyn Crane gave the Colonels a 23-20 lead.

On Handley’s next two possessions junior Hannah Long made 1 of 2 free throws each trip to pull the Judges to within one at 23-22, but that’s as close as they got the rest of the night.

James Wood closed out the half on a 13-0 run and took a commanding 36-22 lead into the locker room for the break.

“This is definitely an important win for us. Definitely a good night for us. I think we played really well,” said Brooks, who had game-highs with 17 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and five steals ( sheadded three block shots). “That’s kind of how it is. We start off slow but we just play together. We don’t let it bother us. We just keep going, we don’t worry about the score.”

With a 14-point lead the Colonels were more then content to run the clock and play keepaway in the second half. The two teams combined for nine points in the third quarter with Handley outscoring Wood 5-4.

A 4-0 start to the fourth gave the Colonels a 17-point advantage, their largest of the night to that point. From there on Wood was able to salt away the victory.

After scoring 20 points and hitting seven field goals (four 3-pointers) in the first half the Judges scored just 13 points and made just four field goals (one 3-pointer) over the last three quarters of the game.

“I was just looking at that. I was just thinking, ‘How does that happen?” Handley coach Randi Jones said. “We got a lot of looks, we’ve just got to shoot with more confidence. We came out strong in that first quarter but just kind of ran out of steam. We allowed them to frustrate us and take us out of our rhythm. They did a very good job of that.

“We didn’t take care of the ball. We did a lot of standing around and just watching things happen. Obviously they took us out of our rhythm. We can’t be so dependent on Angelica and Alysandra.”

Though Brooks was the only Colonel in double figures, Rizzari, Crane, and Sarah Johnson each finished with eight points. Johnson also had nine rebounds and six blocks while Crane added four steals.

Robinson led the way for Handley with 12 points. Worrell finished with seven and Madison Woodson had six.