James Wood avenges early season loss to Sherando

WINCHESTER — A little more than two months have passed since the James Wood and Sherando girls’ basketball teams first met this season.

The Colonels, who lost that first matchup by 10 points, believe they have improved a lot since then.

On Thursday night, they proved it.

Brynna Nesselrodt and Aleeya Silver combined for 48 points and James Wood led nearly from start to finish in handing the Warriors their first district loss with a 64-57 triumph at Frederick County Middle School.

The Colonels (9-7, 6-3 district) trailed just once (6-5) early in the contest and built a 32-23 halftime lead that the Warriors (17-3, 9-1), who got 23 points from Jaiden Polston, could not overcome.

Since starting the season 0-5, including the 46-36 loss against Sherando on Nov. 30, the Colonels have shown marked improvement.

How are they different now than when they first fell to the Warriors?

“Defense wins games. Defense sets up the offense,” James Wood coach Sanford Silver said. “I think defensively we’ve turned the heat up. We never actually had to run a fullcourt press or anything. It’s just our man-to-man defense and our zone traps as far as our defense working and it’s execution.”

But players say its more than just Xs and Os.

“I feel like now we are more of a team than what we were,” Aleeya Silver said. “At the beginning of the season, we’re getting into a rhythm and actually trying to become a team and become one. We’ve come together.”

“We are more of a team now,” Nesselrodt agreed. “Not that we weren’t all in, but we all wanted it [Thursday]. We were more hungry for that win.”

Nesselrodt’s putback of her own miss gave the Colonels a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter on an evening in which the Colonels honored their seniors.

Aleeya Silver’s third 3-pointer of the half gave James Wood the lead for good at 19-16 and she closed out the second quarter with a bomb that made it 32-23 at the half.

Silver, who would nail six 3-pointers in the contest, said the key was making her first shot.

“I felt really confident after that first shot,” the senior guard said. “My team really helped me set up a lot of my stuff. On the perimeter they gave me good screens and great passes. I just had to finish.”

Warriors coach Brooklyn Wilson was disappointed in the first two quarters. “I think we just started out too slow in the first and second quarter,” Wilson said. “We had a game plan and we have to adjust those as the game changes. We had talked about and discussed a couple of things and we didn’t execute very well in the first half tonight.”

A big part of James Wood’s strategy was to pay close attention to Sherando sharpshooter Grace Burke, who had 24 points in the first meeting. Burke’s 3-pointer in the first quarter gave the Warriors their only lead at 6-5, but she would not make another shot from the field until the final quarter.

Gabby Valentinetti chased Burke around in a box-and-one defense most of the evening.

“We came into this game with the game plan to keep that shooter calm,” Sanford Silver said.

The Warriors couldn’t stop the tag-team of Silver and Nesselrodt. Silver had eight points and Nesselrodt had five as the Colonels extended their lead to 45-32 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I love when Brynna and I are in a rhythm,” said Aleeya Silver, who finished with 20 points. “It feels like we are really good together.”

“Both of them are great shooters,” Wilson said. “Once they get hot, it’s hard to stop that.”

Nesselrodt made sure that the Warriors wouldn’t catch the Colonels in the final period. She scored 14 of her game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter, nailing all six of her free throws. Sherando never got closer than the final margin.

“The whole game I was determined,” Nesselrodt said. “I was ready to play. We all had that mentality that we wanted to win.”

Nesselrodt’s stellar play offset that of Polston, who scored 11 points in the fourth before fouling out with 1:57 left.

“I could not ask for a better leader,” Wilson said of Polston. “I could not ask for a tougher player or a more hard-working player than Jaiden. She’s been the heart of the team this season. She played her heart out and left it all out on the floor.”

Wilson said her team, which had been flirting with a district loss lately, should learn from Thursday’s game.

“We let them get a little bit too far ahead,” she said. “You can chip away and stuff like that, but it was the little details tonight. We had four field goals where a toe was right on the 3-point line. At the end of the game, that makes it a three-point, one-possession game. That was kind of the main issue tonight — we really didn’t focus on the details.”

The Warriors will face district unbeaten Millbrook for the only time this season on Monday before district tournament play starts Feb. 11.

The Colonels feel good heading into the tournament, where they know they could run into either Sherando or Millbrook.

“We shouldn’t be taken lightly,” Aleeya Silver said. “That’s what I’m going to say and everyone needs to be ready.”

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