Wood girls fall to Musselman

By Michael L. Misfeldt
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — When a team turns the ball over 31 times, it makes it very difficult to win, and the James Wood High School girls’ basketball team found that out Monday.

The Colonels fell 67-47 at home to Musselman (W.Va.), the team Wood coach Rhonda Slider played for in the late 1980s.

“We started off strong,” Slider said. “We played good on defense, started out moving the ball around well, but then they started trapping and we could not break it and that led to turnovers.

“As you know, when you turn the ball over too much, it makes it difficult to win.”

After falling behind 6-0 to start the game, the Colonels (3-9) played a strong first quarter, making a few stops to take the lead at 9-8 and then ending the period in a 14-14 tie. Heather Armel hit three 3-pointers in that opening period and finished with a team-high 17 points, but the Applemen limited her production over the final three quarters.

“The girls did a super job,” Musselman coach Mike Marsh said. “Armel hit those three quick three pointers to give them the lead in the first quarter, but then we went to a box-and-one and she did not get a good look the rest of the night from the outside.”

The teams combined to shoot 7 for 20 from the field in the second quarter, and Musselman (7-5) carried a 26-21 lead into the break.

The Appelmen were all business when the third quarter began, opening up with a 9-0 run and starting to put the game out of reach.

Musselman outscored James Wood 18-9 in the period to go ahead by 14.

“Well, unfortunately we always seem to have one bad quarter,” Slider said. “The other day it was the second, tonight it was the third. I really think that they came out after the half ready to go and they got a couple of quick easy baskets. It slowed us down and put us on the defensive, and we had to catch up.”

The Colonels did have a strong fourth quarter shooting 50 percent from the field and scoring 17 points, but it was too little, too late.

Sophomore Nichole Henderson scored a game-high 24 for Musselman, which also got 21 points from senior Meghan Stambaugh. Junior Chantie Henderson went 8 for 10 from the free-throw line and contributed 10 points.

“Meghan has been playing real well for us,” Marsh said. “Nichole is only a sophomore and she had a very good game for us tonight, while her sister Chantie was able to keep Armel from getting open looks. If you play that type of defense on their best shooter and can still get 10 [points], I will take that every night.”

Colonels junior Shannon Thorne recorded a double-double with a game-high 18 rebounds to go with 10 points.

“We will continue to work,” Slider said. “We are not out. We will come back. We have three more games this week, and we will continue to work hard at practice and we will turn this around.”