James Wood girls pull out overtime win over Sherando

WINCHESTER — In describing James Wood's season since a season-opening 37-point defeat on Dec. 2 to Clarke County, Colonels' coach Sanford Silver cited "togetherness on and off the court" as one of the main factors for the team's growth.

James Wood needed every bit of its cohesiveness to keep its winning streak alive on Friday night at Shirley Gymnasium.

The Colonels — who never trailed in the first 29 minutes and 50 seconds — earned a gritty 46-41 overtime victory over Frederick County rival Sherando by wiping out two two-point deficits in the last 1:12 of regulation and using a 7-0 run in the extra session to take control.

After the game was tied 37-37 at the end of regulation, the Colonels (5-1) outscored the Warriors (0-5) 9-4 in overtime to take the Class 4 Northwestern District opener for both teams.

It was James Wood's defense (26 turnovers forced) and senior Josie Russell who played the biggest role in extending the Colonels' winning streak to five games. The 6-foot Russell had game-highs of 24 points and 16 rebounds (as well as four steals) to extend her double-double streak to six, and came up huge down the stretch.

She scored the game-tying bucket in regulation to make it 37-37 with 10.5 seconds left on a 14-foot turnaround jumper in the lane.

Russell put the Colonels up for good in overtime at 41-39 by starting her dribble near the top of the key, circling right, then cutting toward the basket as she neared the baseline before finishing with a layup with 1:42 left.

Her offensive rebound on the next possession led to sophomore forward Danaya Jackson banking the ball in for a 43-39 edge with 1:04 left.

Russell then drained two free throws with 28.3 seconds left to complete the scoring.

"You just know something great is going to happen [when Russell has the ball]," Silver said. "There's going to be some miscues here and there, but you'd rather have the ball in your best player's hands in [close-game] situations. It's just going to go in your favor at some point or another."

As big as Russell's performance was, she said the collective effort of the Colonels is what has made the difference in the last two weeks.

"We've played more team basketball than we have 'me' basketball," Russell said.

That showed up at the end when the Colonels — who scored the game's first eight points and led by as much as 10 in the first half — didn't get rattled after Sherando took three late leads in regulation and scored the opening bucket in overtime.

"We were resilient tonight," Sanford said. "We came into this game respecting Sherando, knowing that they're our archrival for us and knowing it's going to be a tough matchup. [The Warriors'] record doesn't dictate what type of team they are. They came out here and played a hard basketball game tonight and gave us a battle."

The first half was a struggle for both teams. James Wood didn't score the rest of the half after Russell knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:26 left in the second quarter for the game's biggest lead at 15-5, but the Warriors could only climb within 15-9 at halftime. James Wood shot 12.5% overall (4 of 32) and from 3-point range (2 of 16) and was 5 of 10 from the free throw line at the half, while Sherando was 3 of 23 (13%) overall, 0 for 6 from beyond the arc and 3 for 8 from the line.

Both teams raised their games on offense after halftime. The Warriors — who trailed 25-21 after three quarters — knocked down 5 of 8 3-pointers in the last 20 minutes. Farren Crist (eight points, four steals) connected on two of them, including one with 2:10 left in regulation to give the Warriors their first lead at 32-31.

"We were definitely moving the ball a little bit better [after halftime]," Sherando coach Brooklyn Wilson said. "We talked about one of our keys being to take better care of the ball. Our first four games, our turnover percentage was way higher than what we would like it to be.

"We still made some mistakes tonight, but overall we did a much better job of really valuing each possession, taking advantage of the looks that we got, shooting open shots when they were there, and finding better options when they weren't there."

After taking half of their shots from beyond the arc against the Warriors' zone in the first half, James Wood made a point of trying to drive more and work the ball inside more in the second half. After halftime, the Colonels made 12 of 33 field goal attempts and cut their 3-point attempts in half.

"I'm an old-school coach," Silver said. "I like foul-line extended, short corner, all those kind of things, which are still very relevant in the game today. And [attacking the post] did pay dividends for us."

After Crist's 3-pointer, a driving layup from Aubrey Nail (seven points, four assists) put the Colonels up 33-32 with 1:50 left. Sherando's Therese Basile stole the ball in the backcourt on the left side, dribbled into the frontcourt, then passed the ball to the right side to Josie Willett (13 points, seven rebounds), who knocked down a 3-pointer for a 35-33 lead.

James Wood quickly responded though, finding Russell open in the right corner. She drove the baseline and tied the game at 35-35 with a layup.

Russell would again try a baseline drive two possessions later, but the Warriors knocked the ball away as she raised her arms to shoot the ball. Willett scooped up the loose ball, ran the floor and was fouled with 24.3 seconds left. She knocked down both free throws to make it 37-35 Sherando.

Russell would not be denied on James Wood's next possession. After a timeout with 15 seconds left, the Colonels inbounded the ball in the paint to Russell. She turned on her defender and coolly knocked down the tying jump shot with 10.5 seconds left. James Wood would not allow Sherando to take another shot in regulation, even with the Warriors taking a timeout with 2.7 seconds left and inbouding from near half court.

Sherando won the jump ball to start overtime, and Willett grabbed it and quickly raced in for a layup to make it 39-37 Warriors.

Jackson would score all four of her points in overtime for the Colonels. With 3:01 left, she grabbed the ball after a Sherando player fell down after a rebound to make it 39-39.

Russell had a beautiful circular drive to put Wood up for good at 41-39 with 1:42 left.

"We need the points to win this game," said Russell when asked about her mindset late in the fourth quarter and overtime. "We had to play together and not rush everything."

Russell would miss two shots in the post with about 1:15 left, but she grabbed both rebounds. After the second one, Wood got the ball to Jackson, who banked in a shot for a 43-39 edge that was too much for Sherando to overcome. The Colonels made 3 of 6 free throw attempts — a free throw by Maddie Shirley with 40 seconds left extended James Wood's run to 7-0 — and the Warriors made 1 of 4 field attempts.

"It means a lot [to win]," Jackson said. "A lot of those players on Sherando we know, and we talk to. It was a team effort. I think our team was more aggressive and more put together."

James Wood's defense was certainly relentless. The Colonels' pressure and traps produced two turnovers in the final minute of regulation and three more in overtime. James Wood held Sherando to 15-of-52 shooting (28.8% overall).

"We are all over the place without fouling," Russell said. "We are hungry for the ball and we want that ball turned over for our transitions."

It was a tough loss for Sherando, but Wilson thought the Warriors played their best game of the year. Prior to the game, there wasn't a whole lot that pointed to Sherando having a chance at victory — the Colonels were 3-0 against Strasburg and Central (outscoring them by an average of 8.0 points per game) while the Warriors were 0-2 against those schools (losing by nine points in each game).

"I think we played tougher [than we have]," Wilson said. "I think we played more aggressive. We talked before the game and yesterday in practice about what we needed to do to be successful. A lot of things we talked about in practice, I thought the girls did a great job of putting it into the game, so I was very proud of them for that."

Shirley had six points and Ashley Evans had five points and seven rebounds for the Colonels.

For the Warriors, Madison Mood had eight points and seven rebounds and briefly left the game with an injury during the time when James Wood scored the four points that made it 43-39. Hannah Sutphin added seven rebounds.

James Wood plays at Clarke County on Saturday. Sherando will host Kettle Run on Wednesday.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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