In a breath of fresh air from its usual brutal Commonwealth District slate, Orange County took just one lead as it hosted Louisa County and was able to expand on it and win 49-26 with ease thanks to its patience. Getting to that point took some coercing, but the Hornets did, they simply rolled.
“We pushed the ball up and down the court the way we wanted to, but offensively we couldn’t get into our sets,” said Orange coach Dave Rabe. “I think we tried to do too much against the County right next to us, it’s a bragging rights game, the Battle of the Tastee Freeze, so at half time, the big talk was slowing down and setting screens and making cuts. We did that in the second half and I was happy with it.”
With the Lions having a rough night with turnovers and hitting their open looks from the field, the Hornets rolled to a 11-1 start going into the second quarter. While Louisa was able to get something going in the second frame to keep the lead from getting too out of hand, Orange changed that in the third.
“We work really hard in practice, we play together well as a team and do things well in transition, so I was just glad my team got a win tonight,” Smith said. “When Coach Rabe told us to slow down it was tough because we all want to play a fast pace game, but we tried and worked more on passing and you know, Coach knows best.”
Out scoring the Lions 17-6 in the third frame, the Hornets were able to build a 23-point lead thanks to Markiana Smith, Ashanti Demas and Rebecca Harvey who combined for 14 points in that stretch. Added to that was the play of point guard Kiani Hudgen’s, who’s pace gave Louisa trouble on both ends.
“We’ve got young kids, but we’ve got fast kids so we’ve got to get used to looking up and recognizing the open girl quickly rather than dribbling up the court and just getting rid of the ball,” Rabe said. “So tonight was a get a good opportunity for our freshman point guard to get out there and run and hopefully she’ll be able to continue to do that.”
In the fourth, Louisa was able to hold Orange to just one field goal, but Hornets got their offense from that point forward from the free throw line where they scored seven of the their nine points to keep the lead more than safe.
“They’ve got us the last couple years so we came out to try our best and just came out on top,” Smith said.
Rebecca Brookman and Shannon Jenkins led Louisa on offense, both finishing with seven points.
Orange heads to Colonial Forge on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Lions host Handley on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Mineral Baptist Church.
