It was the girls basketball equivalent of Groundhog Day. Time and time again, Fluvanna County could count on the following sequence — Powhatan would miss a jump shot, Flyin’ Fluco senior K-anna Loyd would come up with the rebound, and then hurl a long outlet pass to her sophomore sister Mia Loyd for an easy layup. And no matter how many times K-anna came up with the rebound, Powhatan seemed defenseless from keeping the youngest Loyd from attack the basket for an easy 2-points.
“As long as (K-anna) comes up with the rebound, and as long as I’m free to run the floor, we’re going to we’re going to do that everytime,” Mia Loyd said.
“I expect her to be there,” K-anna added.
It was nothing short of a layup clinic in the Shoebox on Tuesday night. Behind their high percentage shots and stingy defense, the Flucos managed to win their fourth contest of the year by double digits with a 59-35 handling of the Indians.
“Hey, we’ve got to go with what’s working,” said Fluvanna coach Chad White of the fastbreak-laden game. “That’s our thing. We want to push it and look to get easy baskets because don’t want to come across half court and work for every single bucket.”
Mia Loyd put her team out in front early by scoring 15 of the Flucos’ 20 first quarter points to give them a 13-point lead going into the second frame. Fluvanna extended its lead to 19 points at the half, and went up by 30 points in the third quarter allowing White to give his bench plenty of minutes.
“(Our bench players) come in and work their butts off everyday and this helps because now they’re getting them some game experience,” White said. “Down the line it can help us for when someone gets in foul trouble or what not. So yes, the bench is coming out and doing exactly what we need them to do.”
With two his top shooters gone from last year in Ariel Stewart and Shannon Bossieux, White has had plenty of time to look for some new 3-point options, and on Tuesday night, Briana Burruss and Lauren Key combined for three shots beyond the arc. Nine of the Fluvanna’s 11 players registered a point.
Mia Loyd finished with a game high 28 points, 18 of which came on layups. She also had four steals and five assists. K-anna Loyd led all rebounders with 11 boards, to go along with seven points, six assists and five steals.
Steals were another common theme for the Flucos as guard Ashleigh Harris gave Fluvanna three players with at least four takeaways.
“That’s probably the thing that we practice the most when we’re in practice,” K-anna Loyd said. “Every defensive drill you can think of, we’re doing it.”
So far this season, nobody has come within 19 points of Fluvanna–The Flucos sport an average margin of victory of 22.6 points.
The Flucos (5-0) head to Orange County on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
