Defense Fuels James Wood To Girls’ Basketball Win Over Clarke County

Posted: January 21, 2016
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

BERRYVILLE — The second girls’ basketball matchup this season between James Wood and Clarke County was more defensive.

It was closer, too.

Ultimately, the final result was the same.

Led by Keiana Brooks’ 19 points, Grace Greene’s huge double-double of 15 points and 23 rebounds and Hannah Arnolds’s six blocks, the Colonels topped the Eagles 46-38.

James Wood, playing a new defense installed by coach Krista Crites, improved to 9-4 overall, while Clarke County dropped to 7-9.

The contest was much closer than the Colonels 61-36 triumph on Dec. 3, but Crites thought her club’s defensive effort improved.

“I think our defense was tremendous,” she said. “They were amazing tonight. “We just put that in yesterday. I added in something different. I thought our defense is what got us through tonight. I thought we had too many turnovers and missed too many easy buckets. But our defense was the difference tonight and we made shots when we needed to make them.”

Greene dominated the glass and Arnold was intimidating inside with her swats.

“I think we really stepped up on defense,” Greene said. “I like being in the middle so I can get rebounds. I felt like all the rebounds were just coming to me and I just went up there and got them. I felt really comfortable today in the middle.”

“Hannah [Arnold] is a beast when it comes to blocks,”Greene added. “I don’t even know how she does it. She has such a good eye for it. I would hate to play against Hannah.”

The defense was important as the Colonels started slowly. They were held scoreless for the first four minutes of the game by the Eagles thanks to missed shots and turnovers.

“We normally play a lot of man but they have guards that can penetrate well so I thought we’d go into a zone and try to contain them,” Clarke County coach Regina Downing said. “When [Brooks] did break us down on the penetration she would find someone getting loose to the basket and those were our breakdowns. I’m proud of these kids though. We are really finding ourselves now we are doing some things that I am proud of.”

“Clarke normally comes out in a full court man,” Crites said. “I think that was our thinking. When they came out and that didn’t happen then I think it threw off our thought process a little bit. Once I calmed them down a little bit we came out and did what we needed to do offensively.”

While holding the Colonels scoreless the Eagles managed just six points of their own in the opening four minutes. When Brooks got the scoring started by converting a three-point play, the Colonels were off and running to finish the quarter up 12-6.

James Wood extended the lead to as many as 10 points at times throughout the game and never let Clarke County back within six after the first quarter.

James Wood’s triple threat of Brooks, Greene and Arnold proved to be too much.

“Keiana is a special player,”Crites said. ” She is amazing, that’s why she’s scored 1,000 points in her career because that’s what she does. She takes the pressure well and knows she’s out go to player. Grace had a huge game tonight with 23 rebounds and Hannah Arnold had six blocks. Everybody tonight did a wonderful job of filling in the position of what they needed to do. The main thing we work on is playing 32 minutes. Each game we play we are having better quarters.”

With James Wood controlling the action, the contest featured two two talented area point guards

Clarke County’s Hannah Ravenscroft and Brooks dazzled the crowd throughout the game. Ravenscroft kept the Eagles within striking distance with 17 points.

“There is a lot of friendship there,” Ravenscroft said. “I’ve played with Keiana since my eighth grade year so it’s always a fun matchup. Every point guard in the area is really talented and I think every one of them is looking to play basketball at the next level.”

“Hannah is really good defensively and she is significantly faster than I am,” Brooks said. “I have worked on not getting nervous going up against players like her and working on my ball handling and driving.”

Jade Payton added eight points for the Eagles.

“We did improve from the last game but we still had a lot of breakdowns on defense and that’s why we lost,” Ravenscroft said.