Clarke girls to beat Wood

WINCHESTER — Two years removed from a Class 2 state title, the Clarke County High School girls’ basketball team is hoping for a return trip to the state tournament after being eliminated in the Region 2B semifinals last season.

The Eagles certainly got off to a good start in James Wood’s Shirley Gymnasium on Monday night.

Led by two-time First Team All-State selection Alainah McKavish’s game-high 18 points, the Eagles built a 19-point first-half lead and cruised to an easy 61-24 win over the Colonels in the season opener for both teams.

It was a special night for multiple reasons for McKavish. With just over two minutes left in the first half, the junior scored on a fast-break layup for a 28-10 Clarke County lead and 1,000 points in her Eagles’ career.

“It’s definitely a big accomplishment,” said McKavish, who also had five rebounds and two assists. “Just grateful for all the coaches that helped me get here and my teammates that helped me get to this point.”

Eagles coach Regina Downing said McKavish’s main focus on Monday was team success, which she helped ensure with her play.

“It was just awesome to see her get her 1,000th point,” Clarke County coach Regina Downing said. “She was just more focused on getting the win tonight. She wasn’t concerned about the 1,000th point. She just wanted to get the win.”

Just 32 seconds into the contest, James Wood opened the scoring on a putback by Josie Russell. It would be the only lead the Colonels would have all game.

Clarke County responded with a 14-0 run. The Eagles enjoyed a 15-5 lead after the first quarter behind six points from Paige Stemberger and five from McKavish.

Just like to open the game, Russell started the second quarter with a putback to make it 15-7. But Clarke County responded with another big run, this one 13-3. McKavish had three straight fastbreak layups to get to 28-10 and reach 1,000 points.

Following a timeout, McKavish buried her only 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to 21 points. The Eagles led 31-12 at halftime, with McKavish scoring 16 points.

The Colonels had all kinds of issues getting into their offense. Seven points was the highest point total they had in any quarter. They committed 22 turnovers by halftime.

“We’ve just got to protect the ball,” James Wood coach Sanford Silver said. “We didn’t protect the ball. Clarke came out being very aggressive and we’ve got to match that intensity and we just didn’t do that. It’s like we backed down from it. No matter what Clarke just kept fighting all the way through and I think that’s the difference. We couldn’t settle into any of our offensive sets or defensive sets.”

Another big concern for Wood was free-throw shooting. The Colonels only made 7 of 22 from the line.

The Eagles continued to extend the lead in the second half. They outscored the Colonels 20-6 in the third quarter for a 51-18 advantage.

“We were just attacking on their defense and kicking it out,” McKavish said. “I thought we did a good job with that. I think we need to work on our defense. Our defense was good but we were getting into foul trouble.”

Clarke County coach Regina Downing said the Eagles’ foul situation does need to improve, but she liked what she saw overall on Monday.

“We saw some good things,” Downing said. “I believe our positives outweighed our negatives. I liked how we pushed the ball in transition and how well we were attacking the basket when we had the opportunities.

“We’ve got to do a better job of passing the ball against the zone. And we did a little too much fouling tonight. Not moving our feet on the defensive end, taking the easy way out by sticking our hands out. I told them if we don’t move our feet we’re going to lose ball games at the free-throw line.”

With the big lead and the running clock in play the fourth quarter was quick and low scoring. The Eagles extended the lead by outscoring Wood 10-6 in the final frame for the 61-24 final.

The Eagles hope Monday’s result becomes a familiar one.

“We didn’t lose too much [from last year] and I think we’ll have a pretty strong season,” McKavish said.

Stemberger finished with 13 points, six rebounds, six steals and four assists, Haley Foltz had nine points and Devin Simmons-Mcdonald chipped in seven points and three steals.

Russell led the way for the Colonels with 13 points. Hailey Harlow added five for Wood.

Silver said the Colonels are capable of playing better.

“I think it’s gonna be an uphill battle but they have put in the work to do it,” he said. “They have to take what they’ve done in practice and offseason and apply it to the regular season.”