By Allen Kha/Scrimmageplay.com Contributor
In last week’s Jefferson District opener at Monticello High School, the Charlottesville girls basketball team jumped out to commanding lead against a host team that struggled to shoot from the field. The Lady Knights experienced a bit of déjà vu Friday when they took on Western Albemarle, but the Warriors didn’t let it last long.
After an opening quarter that saw both teams struggle with shooting, Western Albemarle started to open up the floor in the second quarter. The Warriors were able to clear the interior through off-ball movement and feed the ball to interior players Raven Ward and Carolyn Schneller, who both scored four of their nine points each in the second stanza.
“A year ago, this week, Charlottesville beat us at our gym,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “So we kind of wanted to return the favor. [CHS] is a good team, and we expected a knockout-type of affair. We had to wear [CHS] down a little bit, and later our shots started to fall in.”
Senior point guard Kelsey Swanson — who finished with a game-high 14 points — noted that her team started to pull away from the Lady Knights once it adjusted offensively against Charlottesville’s man-to-man defense.
“We realized we couldn’t run [our offense] the way we exactly wanted it to, so we drove to the basket. Some of our perimeter players making a few shots opened up the floor for us, and from there we could go in-out,” Swanson said.
Charlottesville, meanwhile, could never find the hot shooting hand against the Warriors. Although senior lead guard Ellie von Storch managed to score 11 points, Black Knights coach Dee Mitchelson-Shaver lamented her team’s poor shooting.
“I gave everyone the green light to shoot at halftime. But we just didn’t have it tonight, and we committed too many turnovers against a good Western team. We’re inexperienced and will need to build from this game,” Mitchelson-Shaver said.
Charlottesville plays at William Monroe next Friday. Western Albemarle, meanwhile, plays at Albemarle today. Game time for today’s game is 3:30 pm.
