For both the school, and four year starters Ellie Von Storch and Olivia Levine, it’s not exactly new — but it was a little different as they roles with the team have grown. Same for their coach. Charlottesville’s won than its fair share of Jefferson District tournaments, and with a 40-27 win over Monticello, the Black Knights added one more to the case after a run in the fourth quarter put them over the top.
“It’s very exciting and I’m so proud of the girls — they’ve worked extremely hard for me since November 15th,” said Charlottesville coach Dee Mitchelson, who won a handful of titles as an assistant, but now has her first in just two seasons as head coach. “It’s nice, I’m used to holding the trophy for (former CHS coach Harry Terrell) so it was nice to hold it my hands this time around.”
It only took Mitchelson two years to get there, and against the Mustangs, the Black Knights had a physical battle on their hands until Von Storch started knocking down 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
While Charlottesville came in with a significant size advantage, Monticello managed to control the glass on both offense and defense for most of the game. With Brittany Haun and Maggie Echols doing the heavy lifting in the post, the Mustangs kept pace, answer each Black Knights run with one of their own until the a late surge in the middle of the fourth quarter.
“We felt like going in the battle the of the boards was key coming into the night and I felt like we were successful there for about 90 percent of the game,” said Mustangs coach Mike Mountjoy. “Unfortunately we gave a few offensive rebounds late, and couple with a few turnovers and a scoring drought at the end, we came out on the short end of this one.”
Charlottesville started out hot, scoring nine of the first 10 points of the game Behind Von Storch and Levine. But Jessie Valentic helped Monticello dig out of the early deficit to make it a 2-point game heading into the second quarter, and eventually taking the lead by one soon there after. The Black Knights reclaimed the lead before the break though, and it was not something they gave back.
In the third quarter Charlottesville raced out to an 8-point lead, but just like in the first, Haun and Echols pulled their squad back into it, getting to within a point of tying the game at the end of the frame.
It was then that London Todd came alive for the Black Knights, primarily doing her damage at the free throw line. Coupled with a pair of 3-pointers from Von Storch, and all of the sudden Charlottesville was up by 10 points with five minutes left.
“We talked about it at halftime, that we needed 16 minutes,” Mitchelson said. “We started out well in the beginning of the third, went back downhill a bit after that but in the fourth quarter we played those last eight minutes with a sense of urgency.”
The Black Knights spent the rest of the game shooting free throws, and with Todd burying them one-by-one, the lead was safe to the finish.
“We knew that we weren’t going to be able to finish the game the way we wanted unless we started boxing out and playing tough defense,” Von Storch said. “Picking it up defense carried over on offense. All of the sudden there our shots started falling and we pulled away.”
Von Storch led all scorers with 18 points, fueled by her 3-point shooting. She also had six rebounds. Todd was 10 for 11 at the free throw line and finished with 12 points. Levine tallied eight points despite missing a good chunk of action because of foul trouble.
Haun led Monticello with 10 points and six rebounds while Echols added seven points, putting them at the forefront of the Mustangs scoring book.
“Our post players don’t tend to score in bunches, but anyone who knows the game knows that Maggie Echols and Brittany Haun have done an extraordinary job for us this year,” Mountjoy said. “For an undersized group, those two have done yeoman like work.”
Monticello’s leading scorer coming in, Bridgette Holleran, had five points. Valentic also had five points.
Charlottesville (15-4) and Monticello (12-11) both head into Region II play where they will be joined by fellow JD squads Western Albemarle and William Monroe. The Black Knights host the Mustangs on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Charlottesville. It will be the fourth meeting of the year between the two.
“The beauty (of our season) is that our players are going to get to continue to play, however, I wouldn’t say we’re fornunate by having to play Charlottesville a fourth time,” Mountjoy said. “But when four teams in our district make up an eight-team region playoff, that’s just the way the ball bounces.”
Winners of all three meetings so far, Charlottesville isn’t looking for anything more than a bit of fine tuning coming in.
