STEPHENS CITY — Tough times don’t last, and Sherando girls’ basketball is living proof. After a 1-10 start to the season, the Warriors entered Friday’s home game against James Wood having won four of their last six games.
Behind a surging Avery Ryan’s 30 points, Sherando earned its third straight victory, taking down the Colonels 69-25 after outscoring them 59-19 in the final three quarters. This moved the Warriors to 6-12 and dropped the visitors to 2-13. James Wood defeated Sherando 36-28 on Dec. 12 in their first meeting.
Sherando head coach Regina Downing said her team’s increasing levels of confidence and comfortability have led to improved results.
“Kids are playing hard … I think it’s more our confidence has improved and we understand more what we’re doing in the game,” Downing said. “At the beginning of the season, people were trying to identify the roles on the team, and they were trying to do this, this and that. And I said, ‘let’s just focus on what you’re good at, and play your role, and then that way we’ll be able to make impacts in the game.’ And since, those kids are understanding their roles.”
With Downing in her first year at the helm after leaving Clarke County, and with the Warriors rostering nine first-year varsity players, establishing team chemistry was always going to take time. Now, things are starting to fall into place, especially for Ryan.
The junior guard has given defenses headaches while averaging 18.1 points per game in 18 contests. After scoring 32 points against Fauquier on Tuesday and 26 against Kettle Run on Thursday, her 30-point, six-rebound, six-steal performance proved essential against the Colonels.
Her strongest stretch came in the second quarter, where she scored 13 points and converted on two and-1 opportunities. This helped Sherando go ahead 30-14 at the break.
Ryan later converted another and-1 in the third, beating the buzzer to end the quarter on a high note. She made five of her 10 free throws in the third, finishing 10 of 11 at the stripe.
Downing said Ryan has increasingly started trusting her game, while Ryan said chasing long-term goals has motivated her to keep working hard.
“I think I realized that I’m a junior, my time is kind of running out, so I have to really take all the chances I can,” Ryan said. “Because I want to go play in college, I really have to play at my full potential. Really working hard at practice, it starts with that. [Downing said] not working hard in practice is a day wasted in getting better, so I’ve really taken that to heart.”
“Her confidence has grown, that’s the most important thing,” Downing said. “[I’ve said] you’ve got to trust your work in practice, and then that way, when game time comes, you’ll trust yourself. And now she’s understanding the game and knowing that she’s not always a jump shot. It’s not always going to fall, and I’m always preaching, ‘get to the rim when things aren’t working for you.’”
Defensively, Ryan’s six takeaways weren’t the only part of Sherando’s winning formula. Overall, the Warriors forced 29 turnovers, including 12 in the third quarter. Sophomore center Morgan Scruggs recorded two steals and a block, while senior guard Theresa Basile matched Ryan with six steals.
Additionally, Downing noted her team’s improved rebounding has paid dividends in recent weeks. Sophomore Kinsley Richardson led the team with eight versus James Wood, while Scruggs added seven, Ryan secured six and recent JV callup Cadyn Goode grabbed five.
Richardson put in the work on the offensive glass, turning five offensive rebounds into four second-chance points. Overall, she finished with 10 points.
Another area Ryan and Downing said Sherando has improved in is defending without fouling, but that wasn’t on display initially. The Warriors committed nine fouls in the first eight minutes, allowing James Wood to score all six of its first-quarter points at the stripe.
James Wood forced five Warrior turnovers to open the game. Colonels’ head coach Joe Hall said his team dictated the speed of the game early.
“The big thing for us in the first quarter, we were kind of able to control the pace,” Hall said. “I think as the game progressed, we got into a little bit of foul trouble. We had to start subbing, and had to put a little bit of inexperience on the floor, and that hurt us.”
During the second quarter, foul trouble began setting in for the visitors. Though they were efficient, shooting 4 of 7, they couldn’t keep players like Ryan or Basile (seven points, 5 of 6 at the line) away from the free throw line.
With senior Kooper Hall and junior Erin Link out injured, the Colonels had fewer players to sub in once top offensive options Dayana Jackson and Hailey Harlow started accumulating fouls. Jackson, who finished with a team-high seven points, fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Sherando finished the second frame shooting 7 of 9 at the line, while James Wood shot no free throws. The Colonels committed eight fouls across this stretch, which Ryan said gave her confidence that she could challenge them by driving.
“I knew the refs had been calling a lot of fouls, and [the Colonels] like to slap. They’re really aggressive,” Ryan said. “So I was kind of just focusing on attacking the gaps, reading the defense and really just getting in the paint to try to get fouled.”
Coming out of the break, Sherando kept humming, outscoring James Wood 22-7 to go ahead 52-21 after forcing 12 turnovers in the quarter.
Ryan hit a three in the first 20 seconds and later passed out of a double team to find an open Scruggs at the rim. This basket made it 35-14 at the 5:22 mark.
Moments later, Basile pushed the ball up the court and was fouled by Harlow. She made two free throws, then immediately stole the Colonels’ inbound pass and was fouled on a layup try. She made another pair of free throws to extend the lead to 39-14 with 4:54 on the clock.
A 4-0 run from James Wood senior point guard Aubrey Nail cut into the deficit (41-18). But five more points from Ryan, including her buzzer-beating and-1, gave the Warriors a 31-point lead heading into the fourth.
Hall credited Nail, who finished with six points and three steals, as someone who “always plays with a lot of heart” and “really facilitates what we try to do offensively.”
The Colonels didn’t foul much in the fourth quarter, only sending Sherando to the line one time. But they couldn’t take care of the ball, surrendering another five turnovers.
Three-pointers by sophomores Katherine Ames and Giana Sloane added to the lead before Ryan scored her final basket on a coast-to-coast layup, making it 60-21 with 5:36 remaining.
A putback by Goode, a layup by sophomore Kaylah Houston and an and-1 conversion by Scruggs with 50 seconds left put the finishing touches on the Warriors’ third straight victory, all of which are by double digits.
Before the game, Sherando’s huddle could be heard reciting the phrase “1-2-3, family.” Downing said those aren’t just words, but rather a reflection of the way she’s seen her team come together on and off the court recently.
“They’re all just impacting the game, and they love one another,” Downing said. “That’s the key thing, as where there’s unity, there’s strength, and we have unity on this team. They don’t care who scores the ball; it’s all about us getting the win, and they’re happy for one another.”
Following this win, the Warriors will next host Handley on Friday at 6. The Colonels will host Liberty on Friday at 7:30.
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
Follow him on X @jtuman21