James Wood girls rally to beat Sherando

WINCHESTER — James Wood’s Jenny Kerns leads the area in assists with 3.3 per game, but it was her mother Missy who probably provided the biggest assist of all on Friday night against Sherando.

The senior point guard was forced out of the game with 25 seconds left in the first quarter after she was poked in the eye and one of her contact lenses popped out. Her mom drove home to retrieve a lense replacement and got back in time for the tenacious defender (fourth in the area with 3.3 assists per game) to re-enter the game for the fourth quarter.

James Wood then proceeded to finish off its comeback, outscoring Sherando 21-10 in the fourth quarter to emerge with a 55-48 Class 4 Northwestern District win and a season sweep of the Warriors at Shirley Gymnasium.

Saddled by foul trouble to starters Brenna Prunty (14 points) and Brynna Nesselrodt (11 points) and Kerns’ eye issue, James Wood couldn’t afford to provide much ball pressure against Sherando’s increasingly hot shooting and found itself down 38-29 with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

But a more aggressive Colonels’ defense aided by Kerns helped James Wood (12-2, 7-1 district) hold Sherando (9-8, 5-4) to 4-of-16 shooting in the fourth quarter while the Warriors committed six turnovers.

Sherando made 11 of 27 3-pointers overall, led by freshman guard Grace Burke’s scintillating outside shooting (eight 3-pointers, team-high 26 points). Burke put the Warriors up 43-38 with the last of her three-pointers with 4:23 left, but the Colonels answered with an 11-0 run to go 49-43 with 1:54 left.

Makayla Firebaugh (game-high 29 points to go with 10 rebounds) hit all six of her free throws in the final minute to close out a dramatic win for the Colonels.

“I think that was the whole difference right there, when Jenny came in and we could get that defensive pressure back,” James Wood coach Krista Crites said. “I think that kind of helped change the momentum there in the fourth quarter.

“When Jenny puts her mind to it, she is so fast and so quick. When she sets her mind on a defensive job, she does exactly what I ask her to do. She just energizes when she plays like that. And I had Olivia [Miller] on the other side, who’s usually my other defensive factor up top. When I have them both them in there, it kind of helps Makayla step off and do her thing. We’re good at pressuring the ball and trapping the ball and getting those transition scores, and we were able to do that in the fourth quarter.”

Kerns couldn’t wait to get back in after being frustrated for much of the night.

“I was in contact with [my mother] the whole game to see where she was,” Kerns said. “Luckily she came back right at the end of the third quarter and I came back in the fourth quarter. Our team came back stronger. I was able to play point guard, Makayla was able to go back to shooting guard, and everything just came back together.”

Firebaugh said Kerns’ return made a big difference offensively as well. James Wood needed the help in the fourth quarter.

Prunty was able to play normally in the second half after sitting close to eight minutes with foul trouble in the first half, one that ended with a 17-0 run by Sherando to take a 25-21 lead into the break. But Nesselrodt went to the bench for nearly nine minutes after picking up her fourth foul with 2:52 left in the third quarter, this after sitting the last 4:52 of the first half with three fouls.

Burke fired up the Warrior fans with 4:23 left with a 3-pointer to make it 43-38, but then the Colonels took over on both ends of the floor. Firebaugh came back on the next possession and drilled a deep 3 to make it a two-point game.

Prunty tied it up at 43. She drove to the basket and missed, but she stayed with the play, grabbed the rebound and knocked down the close-range putback to make it 43-43 with 3:22 left. Firebaugh then scored in transition to give James Wood the lead for good, grabbing the long rebound of a Burke missed 3-pointer and running the floor for a layup to make it 45-43.

With two minutes left, Kerns stole an entry pass and fired the ball ahead to Firebaugh, who laid the ball in to make it 49-43 with 1:54 left.

Sherando continued to fight — Haley Mack drilled a 3-pointer to cut the Colonel lead to 51-48 with 26 seconds left — but James Wood was able to get the ball in the hands of the area’s best free-throw shooter in Firebaugh over the remainder of the game.

Firebaugh (87 percent accuracy coming in) made 9 of 10 free throws overall on a night in which James Wood made 19 of 25 as a team.

Kerns couldn’t finish the game — she got hit in the nose and started bleeding with 1:06 left — but she was part of a win that the Colonels will remember for the grit they showed.

“We were all proud that we came back tonight,” Firebaugh said. “We were all hyped. This was a big accomplishment. We never gave up, we all fought. We knew we needed to fight, and our coach encouraged us the whole time. She told us, ‘You got it, girls, you got it,’ and that just helped us come back and win.”

It was a tough loss for Sherando, but Warriors coach Brooklyn Wilson said the Warriors had a lot to feel good about as well. Sherando gave up runs of 20-4 to start the game and 17-2 to start the second half when it lost 55-37 to James Wood last month.

“We were definitely happy with the effort tonight,” Wilson said. “From game to to game we’ve seen improvement. We had a great run there in the second quarter and got some of their starters in foul trouble, which obviously helped.

“But we let them take some of the control [at the end of the third quarter]. And when a good team like that gets a run going and let them take control, it’s tough to get it back.”

The Warriors also received nine points and 10 rebounds from Ella Carlson, seven points from Mack and six points from Bella Entsminger.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1