Albemarle pressed early and often, building a 12-point halftime lead behind K.K. Barbour’s 13 points, and battled through second half foul trouble to top Orange County 53-43 in the Patriots’ home opener Friday night.
Albemarle applied full-court pressure frequently in the first quarter and forced two 5-second violations by the Hornets. However, the aggressive defense also drew frequent whistles from the officials, as the Patriots put Orange in the bonus with two minutes left in the first quarter. Orange made 9 of 15 at the free throw line in the first half, accounting for the majority of their scoring as Albemarle led 27-15.
“That’s all I know, to get them up, get them hyped,” said Albemarle first-year coach Rachel Proudfoot. “As far as disciplined defense, we still need to work on moving our feet, not reaching. But that mentality of how we’re going to come out, play them strong, and make that point right away to a team, is important.”
In the third quarter, Albemarle’s lead began to erode after Barbour was forced to the bench by her fourth foul on a charge called at the 4:46 mark. Orange closed the period on a 12-6 run and entered the fourth quarter in the double bonus. Patriots’ starting point guard Diana Corbin fouled out at the 6:16 mark, and over the next minute and a half the Hornets pulled within three at 40-37.
“We started moving the ball around, and we really started crashing the boards,” said Orange coach David Rabe. “Being undersized, we’ve got to do a better job of boxing out, pulling those rebounds down, and being stronger. Once [Albemarle] got back into that and really crashing the boards, we had a lot of trouble, and started losing the fourth quarter.”
The Hornets lost forward Jade Davis to her fifth foul with 4:33 left to play. Albemarle hit one free throw, and Samira Hussaini rebounded the missed second shot for a lay-in to reverse the tide. With just under three minutes remaining, Kendra Hairston snagged her third steal of the night and scored two of her 11 points to open a nine-point margin for the Patriots.
“It was a fast-paced game,” said Barbour. “You never know what could happen with the game being called so close. Whenever we got a break, we just went for it.”
With 59.8 seconds left, Proudfoot experienced a first in her basketball career when she was whistled for a technical foul after one of the officials collided with her on the floor just across the sideline.
“I have never been run into by a ref in my life, and I’ve been doing this 14 years,” said Proudfoot. “Even as a player, actually, so about 28 years I’ve never been run into by a ref. It’s my first time coaching this team, in this gym. Our sideline area here is about two feet, maybe. So, that was interesting.”
Trailing by seven at that point, Orange failed to take advantage of free throw opportunities down the stretch. In all, the Hornets missed 10 second half free throws, which represented the game’s final margin.
Barbour led all scorers with 16 points and three blocked shots. Alexis Anderson led the Patriots with 10 rebounds. Markiana Smith and Ashleigh Williams paced the Hornets with 10 and 9 points, respectively.
“We’re still guard-heavy, we’re still small, we’re still learning,” said Rabe. “Especially after going 0-22 last year, we can’t be disappointed with our showing tonight.”
Both squads head out of district on Saturday, as Albemarle (1-1, 1-1 Commonwealth) hosts Monticello, while Orange (1-1, 1-1) travels to Madison County.
