Strasburg knocks off Wood in girls' basketball

STRASBURG — Strasburg outscored James Wood 16-1 in the second quarter for a 19-point halftime lead, and the Rams went on to defeat the Colonels 54-43 on Friday night in girls’ basketball.

James Wood (2-3) received a career-high 24 points as well as 12 rebounds from Josie Russell but played without starting guard and captain Nayah Edwards against Strasburg (3-0). Macy Smith led the Rams in scoring with 18 points (11 in the first quarter).

James Wood struggled from the free throw line, making only 5 of 12 attempts in the first quarter and 14 of 26 (53.8 percent) for the game.

Guard Jayden Stinnette (12 points overall) gave Strasburg some breathing room at the end of the first quarter, hitting a buzzer-beater layup to make it 17-13. Forward Hannah Merriner scored seven of the Rams’ points in the second quarter to make it 33-14 at the half.

James Wood did bounce back in the second half, outscoring Strasburg 29-21. Despite the loss, Colonels head coach Sanford Silver was happy to see his team fight back.

“When we came back out the [second] half after that terrible [second] quarter, I think we came and put some numbers up on the board,” Silver said. “And I think we got more resilient in the fourth quarter and tried to finish the game a little more decent. But that’s the way we should’ve started.

“[But] we don’t give up, we don’t quit, we don’t retreat. We keep fighting and try to make something happen, especially when we played sloppy basketball. And I think in the end, [we] proved that. We played much better sound basketball through the end, hit a couple of 3’s here and there and gave a good feeling going back home. We know we have stuff to work on, but we don’t produce quitters.”

Russell found her rhythm by scoring 19 points in the second half, including three consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter.

While the Colonels made a strong effort to cut into the lead, the Rams finished the fourth quarter strong. Guard/forward Kenley Arnold was the closer, scoring seven consecutive points, including a 3-pointer, to keep the Colonels at bay.

Strasburg got into foul trouble early, having seven team fouls in the first quarter. The team had 20 fouls throughout the whole game. In the first and third quarters they had seven fouls apiece.

“It was tough to watch,” said Strasburg coach Kelly Stinnette. “It was hard, for myself included, but just trying to keep them composed…we don’t have a lot of upperclassmen. Obviously, Macy’s our leader, but we have three girls who played significant minutes last year. Two sophomores and a junior and just trying to have those four as our nucleus to calm everyone down. ...They did a nice job of not losing themselves in those two quarters because it was tough.”

James Wood was also led by Brooklynn Medina (eight points) and Kooper Hall (seven points).