Three minutes into Tuesday night’s home contest against Fluvanna, the Albemarle girls basketball team trailed the Flucos 11-1, having missed every field goal it had attempted.
The slow start erased the energy in the building generated by a pregame ceremony honoring Patriots senior center K.K. Barbour, who set Albemarle’s career scoring record two weeks ago in a game at Orange.
Fortunately for the Patriots, Barbour was her usual self, leading the charge with 29 points and 19 rebounds as AHS bounced back to defeat the Flucos 57-46 and score an important Jefferson District win.
“[I told them] to make the mindset that you’re going to get back in this, and that the hustle plays would have to outweigh the panic plays.” Albemarle head coach Rachel Proudfoot said.
The Patriots managed to close the gap to 20-16 at the end of one quarter and began the second frame on a 7-0 spurt to take a 23-20 lead on a basket by Barbour with 5:43 left before halftime. The Patriots led 29-24 when Fluvanna reeled off an 8-0 run capped by an old-fashioned three-point play by Autumn Shepard. Not to be outdone, Albemarle held Fluvanna scoreless for the final two-and-a-half minutes of the half to take a 35-32 lead at the break, capped by four straight Kendra Hairston free throws. Hairston also registered a double-double on the evening with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
The Flucos hung tough in the third quarter, limiting Barbour to just two points in the period and Albemarle to six as a team, but could only muster four points themselves as the jump shots that were falling in the first half didn’t go down after halftime, resulting in a 41-36 Albemarle lead going into the final quarter.
“We’re not going to change the way we play,” Fluvanna head coach Chad White said. “We want to get it up and down the floor. We’re hoping that [Albemarle] would have to sub Barbour out, because she’s so good on both ends.”
The lead remained at five at the midway point of the final quarter when Albemarle put together a 6-0 run over the next two minutes, featuring a pair of baskets by Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper and another by Aneesha Debruhl, leaving the Flucos with too big of a deficit and not enough time to overcome it.
“We played Patrick Henry and we came up short by one point, and we had more panic plays than hustle plays,” Barbour said. “In this game we wanted to turn up the hustle, and that’s what we did.”
Albemarle has a quick turnaround, hosting Powhatan Wednesday night. Fluvanna will also host Powhatan in its next game on Friday night.
