WINCHESTER — Gritty can be a lot better than pretty in athletics, and the Handley High School girls’ basketball team relied plenty on the former quality to get the job done on Monday night.
In a game that was moved up a day because of the threat of inclement weather, the Judges made only 9 of 41 field goal attempts and committed 19 turnovers through three quarters.
But they increased their lead from five after one quarter to 10 at halftime and 14 after three quarters en route to their latest rout of a Frederick County rival, defeating James Wood 54-26 at the Colonels’ Shirley Gymnasium.
Handley — which won its fifth straight game to improve to 11-8 — won all six regular-season games against Frederick County schools by double digits, including five by more than 20 points. The Judges won those six games by an average of 25.2 points per game. They beat James Wood (2-14) 52-26 on Jan. 6 in their previous meeting.
Handley — which led 8-3 after one quarter and 17-7 at the half — played with more aggression in the second half, which helped it attempt 10 free throws (making six) in the third quarter and make 10 of its 20 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter.
For Handley, defense was a constant — James Wood made only 10 of 40 field goal attempts and committed 29 turnovers. Handley’s rebounding got even better after the break. The Judges — who led 31-17 after three quarters — finished with a whopping 53-24 edge on the glass (23-5 offensive) and had three players with nine or more rebounds.
As usual, senior Reagan Edsell led the way. She was held to five points and three rebounds in the first half, but had a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds after halftime to finish with 25 points and 13 boards (Edsell also had four blocks and four steals). Reese Craig (11 rebounds, three steals) and Jordan Coates (nine rebounds) also hit the boards hard.
“I think we came out really slow and sluggish tonight,” Handley coach Katlyn Orndorff said. “It took us a couple of quarters to kind of get in a rhythm.”
Despite holding James Wood to seven points on 3-of-17 field goal shooting in the first half, the Judges weren’t satisfied.
“Our man [defense], there was a lot of switching that wasn’t being called,” said senior guard Cameron Hobson, who had seven of her 12 points in the first half.
At halftime, Hobson (four total steals) said the Judges discussed having their defense lead to more offense in the second half. With 14 points in the third quarter, Handley nearly equaled its first-half point total.
“I feel like we were talking a lot more defensively and offensively,” Hobson said. “We were connecting a lot more. Communication is so important, and it was something that was lacking in the beginning of the game.”
Despite having a 26-16 rebounding edge at halftime, Orndorff said the Judges felt they were lacking in that area in the first 16 minutes as well.
Five seconds into the second half, Edsell made it a lot tougher for the Colonels on the boards with a drive that resulted in the third foul for James Wood center Hailey Harlow, the Colonels’ tallest player at 6 feet. She went to the bench for the rest of the quarter, and Handley owned a 13-5 rebounding edge in the third.
Edsell made both free throws for a 19-7 lead. Later in the quarter, Edsell hit a jumper off an offensive rebound, ran the floor after a defensive rebound for a layup and hit two free throws after grabbing a defensive rebound, dribbling the length of the floor and getting into the paint before being fouled.
“[Rebounding and transition] I think has been a focus for a while, and we’re getting better at it,” Edsell said.
Edsell made 7 of 9 field goal attempts and 5 of 5 shots from the line in the second half after making 2 of 8 and 1 of 2, respectively, in the first half against a swarming James Wood zone.
“I think we played well defensively early on,” James Wood coach Joe Hall said. “We were able to limit [Edsell’s] touches in the first half, but it’s tough to keep a player like that from having a great game the entire game. And ultimately, we got into foul trouble, so we had to make some adjustments to what we were doing defensively, and that kind of hurt us down the stretch. [Handley] has a physical team, and they hit the boards hard.”
Up 31-17, Hobson kicked off a strong offensive fourth quarter for Handley with a steal and layup, part of a 12-3 run in which Hobson hit a 3-pointer, Edsell had a steal and layup and the Judges had four points from offensive rebounds. Handley led 43-20 at the end of the run, and the Judges led by at least 20 points the remainder of the game.
Bella Hines added nine points for the Judges.
Though James Wood has only two wins, improved health gives the team reason for hope in the future. Hall said Saturday marked the first time since the Colonels beat Sherando on Dec. 12 to improve to 1-3 that they had 10 healthy varsity players for practice, though they’ve been missing Erin Link for about a week and a half due to injury. At one point, Hall said the Colonels had seven healthy players.
Kooper Hall (five points, two steals) played in her first game since that Sherando contest and was one of three Colonels to hit 3-pointers for Wood in the fourth quarter, along with Aubrey Nail (team-high seven points, two steals) and Malise Olah.
“I was pleased that we got Kooper Hall back,” Hall said. “She played a pretty good game [for having missed so much time]. And I was really pleased with our outside shooting. We’ve been trying to work on that and bring a different element to our offense.”
Dayana Jackson had six points and a team-high four steals for the Colonels, who will travel to take on Millbrook on Friday in their next game.
With 11 wins in its last 13 games, Handley hopes to keep the good times rolling. On Wednesday, the Judges will travel to Hampshire (West Virginia). The Trojans beat the Judges 36-33 on Dec. 6 while Edsell was sidelined by injury.
“[The team] is doing a better job of playing together,” Orndorff said. “They’re doing a better job on man defense, talking and rotating. Tonight was not our best job of man defense, but we’re hoping to utilize that more in the next couple of games.”
Edsell likes what she’s seeing from her team, but wants to see the Judges learn from Monday’s game.
“Our chemistry on the court has definitely improved,” Edsell said. “Just playing together, finding our offensive flow has been better. Talking on defense, finding those switches. But there’s definitely a lot to improve on, especially tonight. We’ll go back, watch this game through, see what we need to fix, and go from there.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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