Occasionally, a normal, everyday regular season game can transform into something completely different — an opportunity for a life lesson.
The officiating crew Thursday night at the Charlottesville and Fluvanna girls game seemed to lose control of the contest, reversing and confusing calls throughout including an intentional foul in the final seconds called by at least two of the officials but reversed in a conference as not intentional. Both Charlottesville and Fluvanna County’s girls squads acquitted themselves well, keeping their composure as well as could be expected as both squads’ frustration mounted.
In the end, Fluvanna held on to a 33-31 victory in the low scoring contest, but both teams proved they could keep playing hard even when confusion reigned and everything seemed to be going against both of them.
“My girls did a great job,” said Fluvanna County coach Chad White. “That’s what I was just telling them — ‘you guys kept your composure.’ We try and teach life lessons through basketball and I told them you’re going to have a lot of times when you get out of school where things aren’t going the way you want them to go. You can either sulk and give up or find ways to make it through.”
White’s Fluvanna squad held a narrow 13-9 lead at halftime and couldn’t seem to separate themselves from Charlottesville despite the Black Knights struggles from the field and at the line (CHS went 8-for-21 at the charity stripe). But Kiana Childress’ own performance from the foul line — 11 for 16 — that led to a 15-point night and accounted for nearly half the Flucos’ point total was enough to lift Fluvanna to the win. Kate Stutz bolstered the effort with 10 points of her own.
Raylaja Waller led Charlottesville with seven points while Kendall Ballard notched five points. But while the point totals were low, Charlottesville coach James Daly was as pleased with White with how his team handled a game that devolved into something quite different as the inconsistency mounted.
“I appreciate that I don’t have to coach effort,” Daly said. “There’s not one of them that I have to yell ‘wake up, the game is going,’ nothing like that. They play hard for 32 minutes.”
No matter what the circumstances apparently. Fluvanna will hit the road Friday to take on Powhatan while Fluvanna travels to Louisa County.
