By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
BUCKINGHAM – Martinsville’s girls basketball team withstood a fast and furious finish from Buckingham on Tuesday night to advance to the 2A West semifinals.
The Knights cut a seven-point deficit to two in the final 26 seconds, but it wasn’t enough as the Bulldogs knocked off the top-seeded hosts 50-48.
Martinsville will play Wise County Central in the semifinals on Thursday at Floyd County.
“They hung in there and fought and we needed another 30 seconds,” Buckingham coach Ethan Abruzzo said. “I felt like we didn’t shoot well and overall we did not play one of our better games. I thought we played what they wanted us to play, we didn’t play our game, and that hurt us.”
Martinsville controlled the tempo from the opening tip and forced the James River District champions to make sloppy mistakes.
Buckingham (20-4) led briefly in the first quarter but the visitors quickly took over and maintained the advantage. The Bulldogs got a stellar performance from Jalexus Mitchell, who poured in 20 points to go along with five steals.
Martinsville led by as many as eight in the third, but Buckingham closed the gap and tied the game at 32. The Knights were able to create opportunities during that stretch, and took advantage of the Bulldogs’ turnovers. Kristen Gough connected on a 3-pointer to bring Buckingham within two, then Shae Hurt converted a pair of free throws to tie it with 2:39 remaining in the frame.
However, the Bulldogs closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to regain the momentum.
“It kind of felt like we were out of sync, and they scored a bunch. I kept hoping we would come out of it — I thought we had a play there that looked like we were going to do something and we turned it over,” Abruzzo said. “We let them dictate how the game went. Our goal is to score 60 and we only scored 48 — we didn’t play our game.”
Despite trailing by as many as 10 points late in the fourth, the Conference 37 champions chipped away at the lead with baskets by Hurt, Micaila Coleman and Robyn Davis.
Hurt scored a team-high 20 points to go along with six steals. Gough grabbed 18 rebounds, 11 of which came on the defensive end, and finished with nine points. Coleman added 11 points and five steals and Davis, a senior, finished with six points, all of which came in the final minute.
