By Drew Goodman / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Six years is a long time to wait, even for a man as patient as Western Albemarle girls’ basketball head coach Kris Wright but that’s how long it had been since the Warriors qualified for the VHSL State Tournament prior to Thursday’s Region 3C semifinal against Brookville.
Despite some impressive regular season outputs, Wright’s team has fallen victim to the Conference 29 or Region 3C gauntlets that stood in their way following the 2013 Virginia High School League realignment.
On the six-year anniversary of the last time Western clinched a state tournament berth, the 2018-19 Warriors locked down the visiting Bees when it counted, walking away with a hard-fought 55-50 triumph bolstered by a gritty effort forced by a key injury.
“I really just kind of wanted it for this group as much as anything,” Wright said following the win. “We have great upperclassmen leadership, great kids, they work extremely hard. They have a whole lot of guts, so you like to see kids get rewarded when that’s the case.”
Junior Sydney Sherman led Western with 17 points, including some clutch free throws at the end of regulation and in overtime.
Conquering the Seminole District Champion and perennial power Bees was enough of a challenge from the get-go, but Western’s road to the state tournament hit a major speed bump in the game’s opening minute. Jefferson District Division 3 Player of the Year and starting point guard Elisabeth Coffman took a shot to the face shortly after tip-off, and did not return to the game.
“Elisabeth has been a huge part of our program for all four years of her career and we rely on her so much. For our players to tough it out without her speaks volumes about their ability and toughness,” Wright said. “We’ve always said we do it together not as one and tonight was a great example of what our program is about.”
Coffman’s absence forced Wright to do some shuffling in the backcourt, and that meant extended pressure on both senior floor general Ellie Plantz and junior guard Kaylyn Pelletier. Plantz was tasked with bringing the ball up the court in the face of heavy pressure, while Pelletier assumed the former’s usual role in the offense.
After spending last season on junior varsity while the Warriors fell to this same Brookville team in the regional semi finals, Pelletier looked like a seasoned veteran on Thursday night. She scored four of Western’s nine points in OT, as a part of her 14-point performance.
Plantz was tasked with being the maestro in Western’s heavy-screening offense.
Following a 6-0 run by the Bees in the second quarter, Plantz dished out two straight assists and knocked down a three-pointer to give Western its largest lead of the night at seven points.
Plantz took one short break in the first half, before being on the court for nearly the entire contest, and helped make up for the loss of Coffman on both ends.
“Ellie is on her third year in varsity, has played a lot of games. She handles the point guard stuff when [Coffman] is not in. We realize that that’s not that often, but tonight, it was for pretty much the whole game,” Wright said. “And then [Pelletier] off the bench. She could have come up to varsity last year, and we kept her on JV and made her run point guard on JV, and I think that kind of stuff pays off in the stuff like this, because they’re more comfortable handling the ball.”
Plantz finished the contest with eight points.
Western Albemarle led up until the 5:28 mark of the fourth quarter, when sophomore Kim Brown buried a three-pointer from the left hand corner to put the visitors from Lynchburg ahead by three. The long ball was the ultimate equalizer for Brookville, as the Bees knocked down nine triples on the evening.
After the Warriors tied the game at 41, Brookville’s Kylie Stark knocked down her sixth three of the game to return the momentum to the visiting bench. The Bees came up with a defensive stop on the other end and killed about a minute of clock, before Plantz stole the ball away with 2:31 remaining in regulation.
Plantz’ big defensive stand led to a huge three-point play for senior Annie Meenan to tie the game at 44. Meenan’s emphatic bucket represented three of her 10 points and Western’s lone field goal of the fourth quarter.
With the score knotted at 46 with 22.5 seconds remaining Warriors were able to spend the fouls that they had to give at the end of regulation to bleed the clock down to just a few ticks left. Brookville had a look to win at with 2.9 seconds remaining, before Stark’s open three from the top of the key rimmed out at the buzzer.
The overtime period belonged to Western Albemarle.
A free throw by Meenan gave the Warriors a one-point lead on Western’s first possession, and Caity Driver, who had been dealing with the flu all week, followed up the foul shot with big bucket that put the home team ahead by three.
Defensively, Western opened the first quarter with seven consecutive stops and gave the Bees a similar treatment in overtime. The Warriors kept Brookville off the scoreboard for the first 3:27 of the extra period by forcing the Bees into a bevy of tough shots, and causing two turnovers.
“Ultimately, sometimes you just have to buckle down and get stops,” Wright said. “It wasn’t anything special. We had a couple rim out for them, and that helped to.”
The Western Albemarle defense was tough until the very end. Already leading by five with over 10 seconds left, the Warriors bothered Stark as soon as she brought the ball to midcourt and did not allow the Bees to get a clean look off as time expired.
Western will take on Spotswood on Friday in the Region 3C Championship game at Monticello High School at 6:00 p.m.
The Warriors (25-2) capped off a perfect record in front of their home fans by scoring the first five points of the overtime period and making enough critical foul shots down the stretch to advance to the region title game.
Western Albemarle girls basketball junior Kaylyn Pelletier talks about the Warriors’ earning a state tournament berth and playing without star Elisabeth Coffman after an early injury in First Off the Floor presented by @PT_acac pic.twitter.com/8aH21lm7uw
— scrimmageplay (@scrimmageplay) February 22, 2019
