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Full-strength Tandem breezes by Broadwater

By Allen Kha / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor

Tandem Friends girls basketball team showed what a clean bill of health can do for a squad Tuesday night.

Led by freshman center Abby Tinsley and junior All-Delaney Athletic Conference first-teamer Lizzie Stewart — both of whom have only recently reentered the lineup after injuries — the eighth-seeded Badgers rolled past visiting Broadwater Academy 62-53 in the first round of the VIS Division III state tournament.

Tandem (10-14, 5-5 DAC) opened the game with a 9-0 run, but the ninth-seeded Vikings (16-6) responded behind the sharp shooting of senior guard Sarah Sharpley, who scored 10 points over the final five minutes of the first quarter and helped her team enter the second stanza tied at 15 points apiece.

The Badgers quashed Broadwater’s momentum, however, when they embarked on 7-0 run for the first 3:15 of the second quarter. With precision execution on offense and a pressure defense that choked Viking possessions, Tandem held the visiting team to one point in the second quarter; Broadwater, in fact, failed to score a field goal for almost ten minutes. Led by Tinsley’s 12 points and 10 offensive rebounds and Stewart’s 13 points in the first half, Tandem entered the half with a 30-16 lead.

“We played some great basketball tonight, and that second quarter we played was really good. Broadwater showed that they could shoot in the first quarter and we eventually adjusted to shut them down. Our defensive intensity — and team effort in general — was very good and indicative of how far we’ve come as a team,” Badgers coach Gordon Fields said.”It’s great what a healthy squad will do for you.”

Fields was particularly pleased with his team’s execution in the half-court. Tandem scored many of its buckets on simple back-door cuts and layups off bounce passes. Fields commented that he was proud of his team’s savvy and ability to thread passing lanes.

“Our offensive execution is something that we’ve been working on, and we really came out and played tonight. We made our shots, gave ourselves opportunities to score easier baskets, and played hard,” Fields said.

Tandem opened the third quarter with a 7-3 run to stretch its lead to 18 points, although Broadwater would not give up. After closing the Badgers’ lead back to 14 points with the start of the fourth quarter, Broadwater embarked on a 10-4 run to close Tandem’s lead to 49-41.

“We played great defense — and to think of it, holding [Broadwater] to one point in the second quarter is amazing — but they never gave up. Both teams played hard, and they had a stretch where they were scoring and we just had to get through it,” Stewart said.

The Vikings trimmed Tandem’s lead down to six a few more times, but Broadwater could not get any closer. With 0:39 remaining in the game and Broadwater just scoring to close the score to 57-51, Tinsley scored off of a putback to expand Tandem’s lead back to eight and stifle the Vikings’ momentum.

Tinsley ended the evening with a double-double — 17 points and 21 rebounds, 15 of which were offensive. Stewart led all scorers with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Broadwater junior guard Madison Bloxom added 13 in the losing effort.

Tandem will travel to Crozet to take on defending state champion Miller this evening at 5:30 p.m. with a berth to the state semifinals on the line.

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