Colonel Girls Rally In 2nd Half To Beat Woodgrove 50-43, Advance To Conference 21 Semifinals

Posted: February 14, 2015
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Free throws, layups, and defense were the keys to James Wood’s 50-43 comeback win Friday in the quarterfinals of the Conference 21 girls’ basketball tournament.

The No. 4 Colonels (17-6) nailed 23 of their 33 free-throw attempts for the game, and 13 of 17 during the critical fourth quarter to seal the victory. Wood will travel to face top-seeded Millbrook Tuesday in the semifinals.

The Wolverines (11-10), although they hit a respectable 8 of 12 from the line, were 15 of 37 from the field, and many of those misses were layups.

“We played hard, and we always play hard,” Wolverine coach Kevin Copley said. “It was great game, and my hat’s off to James Wood. They made the plays when they needed to, and we didn’t.”

After allowing Woodgrove to score 25 points in the first half, James Wood also stepped up its defense and held the Wolverines to just 18 points in the second half, and limited them to just five field goals in 27 attempts.

“Free throws and layups are usually the things that win games,” Copley said. “We make our free throws and hit our lay ups we win tonight. When you miss as many layups as we missed and still only loss by seven that tells me that we beat ourselves.”

Although Woodgrove shot poorly the entire game, the Colonels were anything but consistent offensively in the first half. After a 3-pointer by Danielle Rizzari to open the contest, the Colonels were outscored by the Wolverines 5-1 over the next minute of play.

James Wood’s inability to get points from the field resulted in a 13-8 Woodgrove advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Things didn’t go any better for James Wood in the second quarter, and Woodgrove held a 25-20 lead at the half.

From that point forward, however, the Colonels mounted a determined comeback that eventually gave them the win.

One missing element in James Wood’s play in the first half was Keiana Brooks. The junior scored just two points in the first half, both from the line. That changed dramatically in the third quarter as Brooks ripped off 10 points to help the Colonels tie the score at 35 heading into the final quarter of play.

Brooks continued her offensive heroics in the fourth quarter, and with 6:30 left in the game, she hit two free throws to give James Wood its first lead at 37-36 since the first minute of the game.

Although the Colonel junior’s second-half performance and game-high 16 points was the key to the James Wood’s victory, Brooks wasn’t the only one hitting clutch shots in the final eight minutes of the game.

Morgan Duncan hit all three of her free throws in the fourth quarter and added a field goal to finish the night with six points, five of which came in the final quarter.

While Wood was making its presence felt offensively in the fourth quarter, the defense was far from silent.

The Colonels held the Wolverines to just 2 of 13 from the field during the quarter and caused three critical turnovers.

“I really think that the key to this win was that our defense really stepped up and our free-throw shooting was really clutch,” Krista Crites said. “In the second half, Keiana finally realized that she could score on their defense. She really needed a game like the one she had tonight. She’s been down the last couple of games, but tonight she played like the Keiana we all know.”

The defense also held Camryn Fagan, Woodgrove’s most effective shooter, in check during the second half. The sophomore, who led Wolverines in scoring with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, was held scoreless by the Colonel defense in the second half.