Sherando girls turn back James Wood for first win of season

WINCHESTER — When you haven’t won a game in more than a year, you’ll take a victory any way you can get it.

Despite making just four baskets and scoring 12 points over the final 16 minutes, the Sherando girls’ basketball team earned its first triumph of its COVID-19 delayed season, holding on for a 34-32 victory against James Wood at Shirley Gymnasium on Thursday night.

Sherando weathered three shot attempts by the Colonels over the last 15 seconds to secure the victory, the Warriors’ first since knocking off Culpeper County in the Class 4 Northwestern District tournament in February of 2020.

“It feels amazing,” said Sherando senior Bella Entsminger, who made four key free throws in the final period. “I love winning as everyone does. But winning with this team and the way we did win and how hard we worked, it made it even better.”

Sherando (1-1) entered the contest after having fallen 59-39 on Monday against rival Millbrook, a Class 4 semifinalist from the previous season. They built an 11-point halftime lead against the Colonels (1-1) and were able to survive down the stretch.

“Thinking back to Monday night, we were really disappointed in how we played,” Sherando coach Brooklyn Wilson said. “Obviously it’s a different year. Monday night would have been our first scrimmage and it was about what a first scrimmage looks like. Our girls did a better job of mentally and physically preparing themselves tonight. There were a lot of times where we were facing adversity and things weren’t going the way we wanted them to. I thought they answered well and I was really proud of them.”

Leading 9-8 after one quarter, the Warriors closed the second quarter with an 8-0 run to take a 22-11 lead at the half. Roxie McVeigh converted a pair of layups in the spurt and Donna Sampsell drilled a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer.

The Colonels were held to four field goals in the first half, including just one (a 3-pointer) in the second quarter.

“I think the first half hurt us a little bit,” James Wood coach Sanford Silver said. “We just couldn’t get into a rhythm and attack the basket like we really wanted to. It seems like they had us a little stagnant, especially with their bigs in the game.”

Thanks to its defense and some offense from Gabby Valentinetti, the Colonels were able to get back into the contest. Valentinetti scored nine of her game-high 14 points in the third quarter. He steal and layup just ahead of the buzzer brought James Wood to within 28-24 entering the final period.

But baskets would come hard for both teams again in the final quarter. Neither team made a shot from the floor for the first five minutes of the period. Entsminger’s two free throws with 3:14 left to play gave Sherando a 32-27 lead. And while it appeared that a teammate committed the foul on that play, Valentinetti was whistled for her fifth and fouled out.

“That hurt losing one of your main playmakers in the game who knows how to get away from the defense and attack the rim,” Silver said.

The two squads then exchanged baskets before Emmagrace Bursey swished a 3-pointer to bring the Colonels within 34-32 with 1:48 to go.

Sherando would go 0 for 4 from the line from there, including two misses with 20.4 seconds left. The Colonels would get three shots on their final possession. The first miss was followed by the rebound being knocked out of bounds and after the second the Colonels got the ball back on a held ball with 5.8 seconds left. Brooklyn Crate’s runner in the lane bounced right off the rim just before the final buzzer sounded.

“We knew they have a few 3-point threats,” Wilson said of her team’s defense on the final sequence. “We thought they might try to go for the win and get the 3. We also know they have some girls who can drive and finish well. We just tried to play good solid defense and make sure that we did not leave any wide open shots.”

“To me, defense is the most important part of the game,” said Entsminger, who has been used as a defensive stopper during her career. “If you play good defense all of the shots you make doesn’t matter as long as you stop the other team. Even though we did not make a lot of shots, our defense was amazing. We played with will and heart and did not let offensive setbacks make us play bad on defense.”

Silver said the Colonels got the chances they wanted on their final possession.

“It was a very familiar offense that we ran,” he said. “We had three opportunities and we hesitated a little bit. We’ve just got to have the confidence to finish it.”

McVeigh led the Warriors with eight points, while Jaiden Polston added seven and Asia James had six. Crate, Bursey and Aubrey Grove (eight rebounds, five blocks) added five points each for the Colonels.

Entsminger said the difference Thursday came in a category you can’t measure by statistics.

“I think it was a just lot of determination, teamwork and wanting to win,” she said. “When you want to win, you’ll do anything you can to win. We came together as a team and we all wanted to win. And we won.”

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