WINCHESTER — With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season and teams fighting and jockeying for playoff position, each game down the stretch means that much more.
Playing their fourth game in a week, Millbrook showed on Friday night at home that it’s looking to finish strong.
The Pioneers scored the first 10 points and then held off a second-half rally to slip past James Wood 50-37 in girls’ high school basketball at Casey Gymnasium.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Pioneers (8-13) and moved them a half game in front of Sherando for the No. 3 seed in the Region 4D North standings. The Warriors’ game at Liberty on Friday was postponed until Feb. 17. For the Colonels (2-15), it was their third straight loss and 12th in their last 13 games, a stretch that includes a 52-29 loss to Millbrook on Jan. 9.
“The importance of the game, regardless of who the opponent was for us as far as standings go, was super important for us,” Millbrook coach Cary Bartlett said. “Honestly, it’s been a hard week for us. That was our fourth game [in a week], the first three on the road. We had no days of official practice, and the only day we had off we watched film. We needed a win.”
In getting it, Bartlett said the Pioneers did not have a complete performance.
“That’s been our MO all season,” Bartlett said. “We get off to good starts because everyone is locked in on their assignments, and we’re disciplined, and we’ll stick together. Then we come out after halftime and we have a letdown every game in the third quarter. I feel like we come apart as a group, and those mistakes cost us.
“I was really pleased with our first-half defense. Then we gave up 27 in the second half.”
Sophomore Emily Randall and senior Jane Moreland had 14 points each to lead the Pioneers. Grace Moreland finished with eight points. Junior Dayana Jackson led all scorers with 16 points for the Colonels. Ashlyn Evans added eight and Aubrey Nail six.
Randall got the scoring started for Millbrook with a fast-break layup. Jane Moreland — who committed to NCAA Division II Shippensburg University on Thursday — scored the next six points for the Pioneers before her younger sister Grace finished the run with another fast-break layup for a 10-0 lead with 5:34 left in the first quarter.
Jackson finally got James Wood on the board with a free throw with 5:25 on the clock.
After two Pioneer free throws made it 12-1, Wood scored four straight on a layup by Jackson and two free throws by Erin Link to make it 12-5 with 2:30 left in the period. It was the last time the Colonels would have the deficit in single digits the rest of the night.
The Pioneers closed the first quarter on an 8-1 run, with four points each by Grace Moreland and Brielle Demus, and had a 20-6 lead after one.
With both Moreland sisters on the bench saddled with two fouls each, the Pioneers offense was stuck in neutral for most of the second quarter.
The Colonels were unable to take advantage. In the first five minutes of the second quarter, Wood made only 2 of 7 free throws and only outscored Millbrook 4-1, leaving them trailing 21-10. Wood made only 6 of 13 free throws in the first half and was just 14 for 24 in the game.
Over the last three minutes of the first half, the Pioneers went on a 6-0 run — led by Lexi Welch’s three points — and enjoyed a comfortable 27-10 lead at the break.
“It’s tough on the road, especially against a good district opponent,” James Wood coach Joe Hall said. “They were able to get us playing at a little bit faster pace than we wanted to play to start the game off.”
Just like they did to start the game, the Pioneers were on fire to start the second half. Millbrook went on a 7-0 run to open the third quarter for their biggest lead of the game (34-10) with 6:09 left in the third.
Jane Moreland opened the second-half scoring with a layup on an assist from sister Grace. Randall scored three straight and Grace Moreland again capped the run with a steal and a fast-break layup.
Out of a timeout, Wood went on an 8-0 run. Jackson scored the first three points, Malise Olah had a putback, and Evans buried the only 3-pointer by either team in the game to make it 34-18 with 3:41 left in the third.
Two free throws by Jane Moreland stopped the run and made it 36-18. The Colonels closed the quarter on a 6-1 run and cut the deficit to 37-24 after three, the closest they had been since midway through the second.
For the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, Millbrook held a lead between 13 and 19 points. Down 45-26 with 3:11 left to play, the Colonels made one final push.
Carlee Kees started an 8-0 run off a nice feed from Nail. Nail followed that by hitting a pair of free throws. Hailey Harlow’s putback made it 45-32. Jackson pulled the Colonels to within 45-34 on a jumper just inside the three-point line. Nail hit two free throws to make it 47-36 with 52 seconds left.
In the final minute, Millbrook’s Mackenzie Jones made one free throw and Jane Moreland hit both of hers to push the lead back to 14 and help the Pioneers salt away the game.
“Closing out the game, we struggled making the easy things easy,” Bartlett said. “We like to make the easy things hard, and that showed there again at the end of the game. We took quick shots, we turned the ball over, and we gave up layups and fouls.”
Wood outscored Millbrook 14-10 in the third quarter and 27-23 in the second half after falling down by 17 at the half.
“Our motto is we play to the end. We still get after it,” Hall said. “I’m extremely proud of the progress [from the first Millbrook game].
“We had a lot of opportunities. We closed the gap. We were doing a good job attacking the rim. We got them into a little bit of foul trouble, and we were able to take advantage of some favorable matchups in their man-to-man. The biggest difference was we had a couple of little putbacks that we missed and we also didn’t shoot great from the free-throw line.”
Millbrook is at Liberty on Tuesday and at Sherando on Friday. James Wood still has five games left and needs to win as many as it can to keep its playoff hopes alive. They have four games in five days starting at home Monday against Fauquier.