WINCHESTER — The Millbrook High School girls’ basketball three-day journey from Monday through Wednesday didn’t always go smoothly, but the ride is sure going to be satisfying to reminisce about.
In a bumpy game that featured 51 fouls (26 for Millbrook), a combined 28-percent shooting night from the field (28 for 100) and 49.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line (32 of 65), the Pioneers gritted out a 51-44 Class 4 Northwestern District home win over James Wood on Wednesday at Casey Gymnasium.
It was the third home win in three days for Millbrook (8-4, 2-0 district) and the second time in three days it rallied to win after trailing in the second half.
Pioneers coach Cary Bartlett was glad to see his team dig deep when it needed to against the Colonels (7-4, 2-1), who were playing their first game in 27 days.
“I think we weathered the three-game storm,” Bartlett said. “Monday took a lot out of us. The first thing I noticed is that mental fatigue leads to mental mistakes, and a lot of our details weren’t very good tonight. I think that’s probably a lot to do with fatigue.
“But I always talk about finding a way. Tonight, they again found a way. It wasn’t very pretty, but we’ll take the win.”
Jaliah Jackson (24 points, 12 rebounds, four steals, 12-of-17 from the free-throw line) and Jane Moreland (12 points, 11 rebounds) led Millbrook individually. James Wood had three players score in double figures in Aubrey Nail (14 points, six rebounds), Maddie Shirley (13 points) and Josie Russell (11 points, 10 rebounds), who provided the final scoring with a deep 3-pointer with one second left.
Wednesday’s victory over the Colonels wasn’t as dramatic as Monday’s win over Skyline. The Pioneers went on an 8-0 run in the last 40 seconds of regulation to force overtime against the Hawks, then wiped out a four-point deficit in the extra session in a 70-69 win.
But Wednesday’s win — which came on the heels of a thorough 60-39 win over Liberty on Tuesday — was impressive in its own right.
Millbrook scored only three points in six minutes and 43 seconds spanning the second and third quarters to go from a 19-9 lead with 4:52 left in the second quarter to a 26-22 deficit with 6:09 left in the third quarter. But Millbrook righted the ship for a 37-29 lead after three quarters, then maintained at least a seven-point lead throughout the fourth quarter.
Jackson wasn’t around to hear Bartlett in his interview talk about the message of determination that he drills into his players, but she echoed his thoughts a couple minutes after him.
“[The game] was kind of exhausting, but we always find a way,” Jackson said.
The Pioneers certainly did that in the second half.
James Wood used an 11-3 run over the last 4:36 of the first half to cut Millbrook’s lead to 22-20, then scored the first six points of the second half on 3-pointers by Nail and Russell. (Seven of James Wood’s 11 made field goal attempts came from 3-point range. They made 7 of 21 attempts.)
Millbrook picked it up from there on both ends of the floor. The Colonels missed their last nine attempts of the quarter while the Pioneers made 5 of their last 10 shot. Moreland’s deep jumper from the right side of the floor put Millbrook in the lead for good at 27-26 and was part of a 15-3 run to end the quarter.
Though the Pioneers were fatigued, that didn’t stop them from being aggressive on offense. Millbrook missed all eight of its 3-point attempts but was 17 of 34 at the line (James Wood was 15 of 31). Jackson’s been living at the free throw line this week, making 14 of 25 attempts Monday and 10 of 13 Tuesday prior to her 12-of-17 performance on Wednesday.
“I think we’re starting to get to the point of, ‘Attack the basket, get the free throws, knock them down and get back on defense,'” Jackson said.
In holding James Wood to 11-of-47 shooting and forcing 24 turnovers, the Pioneers were certainly effective on defense.
The 6-foot Russell came in averaging 20.8 points per game but was held to 3 of 9 from the field and 3 of 5 from the line. Russell came into Monday still dealing with an injury that she suffered in Wood’s last game on Dec. 19, but the 6-foot Jackson and 6-foot Moreland did well to limit Russell’s touches. (Russell was able to keep herself on the floor for the most part despite picking up four fouls. Eleven players picked up four fouls — six from Millbrook — and three players fouled out.)
“We have length, which a lot of teams don’t have,” Bartlett said. “That’s definitely an advantage. Having Jaliah and Jane poses a problem. We’ve played against girls similar to [Russell] earlier this season. Our team is pretty battle-tested.”
James Wood coach Sanford Silver did not want to use his team’s nearly month-long stretch without a game as an excuse for how the Colonels played on Wednesday. James Wood beat Liberty 44-39 in its last game.
“We just played terrible basketball,” said Silver, whose team is next in action on Friday at Warren County. “It had nothing to do with the break or anything like that. We’re better than what we put up, that’s for sure. We didn’t protect the ball. We didn’t execute offense. We just did damage to ourself. We were terrible from the free-throw line. Our guard play has to protect the ball. I think that’s it in a nutshell.
“The only positive I can get out of it is that as bad as we did play, you’re still in the game throughout the entire game. That is the silver lining if there’s ever one.”
Millbrook will try to keep its roll going on Friday when it travels to Sherando. With each week, a team which boasts only one senior (Jackson) is getting more and more comfortable with each other.
“We’re very young, and our young kids are getting better, which is exciting,” Bartlett said. “We’ve had to lean on kids earlier in the season, and now my younger kids are starting to step up. We’re starting to round into form. This stretch, it was a tough stretch, but we’re starting to stack wins, and that’s important.”
“Our bond is unmatchable,” Jackson said. “Nobody has a bond like us. We’re all family.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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