With Stafford upsetting Massaponax in the first round of the Commonwealth District tournament, the Albemarle girls basketball team gave itself one more game at home after they took down Brooke Point. Now by virtue of beating the Indians in the semifinals, 58-44, the Patriots suddenly sit one win away from winning the CD tournament just one year after finishing eighth in the regular season standings.
“I told the girls in the locker room that this is where I envisioned them being,” said Albemarle coach Rachel Proudfoot. “If we weren’t here right now, I’d honestly have been surprised because they work so hard and put up constantly with how hard we push them. All teams work hard, but I think we’ve been really demanding on our players. And so I didn’t see us anywhere else but where we are now.”
In a game of runs it was Albemarle that had the big push down the stretch in the fourth quarter. After leading comfortably most of the first half and the beginning of the second, the Patriots saw the Indians suddenly come to life to finish the third quarter and open the fourth. What was a 20-point lead just 90 seconds out of the break was whittled down to just a 6-point lead with four minutes to go in the fourth as Stafford flourished behind the shooting of Kendall Parker.
“It was definitely tense,” said Albemarle guard Samira Houssaini. “But coming back together as a team was what brought on the victory.”
Six points was as close as Albemarle would allow. The well of turnovers that helped the Indians claw back dried up late in the fourth with the Patriots saving their best passing for the last four minutes of play.
“They were running a 2-2-1 trap on us,” Proudfoot said. “I told the girls that we’d win this game if we could hit the post on the backdoor with a bounce pass. They did it. They executed and kept their head up.”
To finish the fourth the Patriots scored 15 of the games last 22 points with Houssaini and Alexis Anderson sparking the run with easy baskets underneath and sound defense on the other end of the court.
“We’re confident in each other and we know that we can rely on each other and make that one extra pass,” Houssaini said. “We feel like we can rely on everyone and not have to play behind just one person.”
The story for Albemarle before its run to close out the win was its offensive rebounding. The Patriots built their big lead starting in the second quarter thanks to Anderson and KK Barbour dominating in the paint. Barbour had nine of her team’s 15 points in the first quarter to pace her team to an 8-point advantage. After Stafford fought back to get within four at the opening of the second, the Patriots went on an 11-2 run to end the half go into halftime up by 13.
Barbour and Kendra Hairston helped to extend the Albemarle run into the third quarter, putting the Patriots up 36-16 before Stafford went on its best stretch of play.
Barbour led all scorers with 19 points to go along with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Houssaini added 17 points including eight in the fourth quarter. Kendra Hairston chipped in 10 points. Anderson and Felicia Garrison both had seven points. Anderson threw in seven rebounds and three blocks as well.
Albemarle heads to Colonial Forge for the CD championship on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Patriots will advance to the Northwest Region win or lose which will begin on Saturday.
