Colonel Girls Pull Away To Defeat Clarke, 61-36

Posted: December 4, 2015
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Seniors Keiana Brooks and Grace Greene combined for 37 points as James Wood bounced Clarke County 61-36 at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Thursday.

Greene carried the Colonels (2-0) early with 12 of her 18 points in the first half and Brooks took over late by adding 10 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter.

“[Brooks and Greene] are true leaders,” said James Wood coach Krista Crites. “I’m truly blessed. Keiana is stepping into a point guard position that she didn’t play much last year and she’s worked very hard. ... Grace did an excellent job. She’s been working really hard on post moves during practice and it paid off tonight.”

“With me and K [Brooks] we kind of click,” Greene said. “I give her a look and she sees to pass it to me. It helps that we are great friends too.”

Both the Eagles (1-1) and Colonels were coming off opening night wins and both have found themselves in the similar position of replacing key components from last season’s successful teams.

“I thought we did great,” Crites said. “I thought we played for four quarters. For as young as we are, tonight we played like we have played together for years. ... Bench play, starters, ball movement and rebounding, I’m impressed thoroughly with them tonight. I’m very proud.”

The Eagles, led by the ball handling and gritty defense of senior Hannah Ravenscroft jumped to an early 8-4 lead before James Wood established its inside game with Greene to take a 10-8 lead after one quarter.

The Colonels opened the second with a 14-2 run that was aided by the game’s only 3-point field goals from juniors Amanda Christian (10 points) and Hannah Arnold (6 points).

“Once Keiana [Brooks] gets going we go pretty well,” Crites said. “We normally start slow and that is a problem that we need to fix and that comes with youth as well. When you lose four starters and you have one returning coming back it’s kind of hard to get them to understand that you have to go the whole time.”

Greene had six points in the period and 12 at the half as the Colonels led 28-16 at the break.

“Grace is my go-to,” Brooks said. “I thought we played well. Definitely Grace, it helps when someone else is scoring. It takes a lot of pressure off of me. That helped momentum a lot.”

The lead would continue to grow after halftime. The Eagles were not able to cut into the margin even after grabbing brief momentum from back-to-back turnovers forced by Ravenscroft stepping up to take a charge from her offensive counterpart.

“I thought we lost a little focus there,” said Clarke County coach Regina Downing. “We got a little bit excited and started rushing things. We started standing around a little bit on the offensive end and on the defensive end we lost sight of our man and gave up some easy buckets that took us out of it a little bit.”

Downing said her team is learning on the job.

“We are young and we are going to take some bumps real early but once we understand on the offensive end where our shots are going to come from I think we will be alright,” she said. “On the defensive end, we have to learn to know where our man is at during all moments of the game. It’s going to take all 10 of us and we are going to have to lean on each other.”

Defensively, the Colonels held Clarke County to just eight points in each of the first three quarters and 15-55 from the field for the game. They surrendered just eight free throw attempts.

“[That’s the] first time I’ve seen in a while that we’ve played a whole game,” Greene said. “We usually start a little slow. There were obviously parts where we struggled a little bit but we stayed together and that really helped us.

“I feel like there is a little more pressure on us. But our freshmen, sophomores and juniors that are coming up are so great. It’s very helpful. That way they can step in and give us a break. As seniors we want to step up and carry the team but sometimes we need a break and it’s great to have them.”

Whether it’s already clicking with James Wood or a work in progress at Clarke County, both teams hope to be clicking at mid-season.

Crites was impressed by the Eagles.

“They are young as well,” Crites said. “They lost some very key players just like we did. They are tough. They are scrappy. They play man defense that is very taxing. They are a very tough team. They show up to play and they play hard.

“They are in the same position we are where they lost a lot of talent and lost the bulk of their scoring. Me on the other hand, I have my leading scorer back.”