Nobody got rattled, nobody panicked.
With Western Albemarle’s girls basketball team looking to upend an Orange County squad that’s been on a tear of late, the Warriors didn’t crack and picked up a huge 51-44 win at home Thursday night.
“I think we’ve been in that situation a lot and we’ve learned a lot from it,” said Western senior Natalie Marbury. “A lot of games have gone the opposite direction. Coming out from that and learning as a team together has really helped us.”
It was a huge step forward as the Warriors flipped a 61-36 loss on the road earlier this year to the Hornets. That’s a 32-point reversal from the opening meeting and against a team in Orange that has been tough and proven capable of hanging around all year.
“Orange has played so well all season long, for us to get a win against that group, particularly as resilient as (they’ve) been,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “They came back late against Louisa not too long ago, they hung in with Charlottesville, they’ve had a lot of resilient type games. For us to pull that off against a resilient group is just so rewarding for us.”
The decisive moment for the Warriors came with around four minutes left. Leading by just four points after three quarters, the Warriors picked up some key baskets and drew fouls at the back end of them to push the lead out to 10 points at 43-33. From there the Warriors milked the clock and answered Orange nearly shot-for-shot.
“We’ve had a lot of close games down the stretch this year where we didn’t close out well,” Wright said. “Tonight we closed the game. We extended the lead a little bit and then we made enough free throws.”
Western’s Eleri Hayden was a huge part of the Warriors’ winning effort, scoring 18 points while pulling down 11 rebounds. Her effort punished Orange underneath and continued a string of big-time games from the Western forward.
“Eleri is amazing, she works really really hard,” Marbury said. “I don’t know, she’s just incredible.”
Western freshman Elizabeth Coffman proved to be a steady hand throughout for the Warriors at point guard despite facing a big-time challenge against one of the area’s best point guards Kiani Hudgens. Coffman finished with 18 points on the night and kept the Warriors out of trouble most of the game with some deft ball-handling.
“I just think it’s just basketball,” Coffman said. “That helps me to calm my nerves and I know what I can do on the court and I just try and focus on my strengths and do the best I can.”
Orange led by two points at the break, but never really got into a groove against the Warriors, with Lexi Lomax scoring all of her team high 12 points before the half while Hudgens finished with 10 points and Diamond Towles totaled 11 points.
“Kris does a great job of developing talent, so we knew we weren’t going to play the team that we played the first time because they always get better,” said Orange coach Dave Rabe. “We had a bad night, we couldn’t hit the side of a barn, we couldn’t box out and they wanted it more than us. Tonight the better team won.”
Hudgens can be a particularly tough matchup down the stretch for Orange as she’s taken games over a number of different times in the fourth quarter this year. But Western had a solution that held Hudgens in check as she finished with just four points in the final frame.
“‘Julia (Haws), you’ve got her’,” Wright said. “I’m not kidding, that was it. Obviously we want to help on ball screens, but in general Julia is a senior defender. Sometimes you just tell that person to take care of it, fortunately Julia can.”
The Hornets and Warriors both face a quick turnaround with Orange taking on Charlottesville at home Friday while Western battles Fluvanna County on the road.
