Yes it’s December, but there’s no denying that the Charlottesville girls basketball team sporting a young and developing roster went into its first meeting with an almost intact Albemarle team back in the fold feeling like an underdog. That said though, the Black Knights have to like their chances now in a revamped Jefferson District after taking down an Albemarle team that had both advantages in terms of size and depth. Thanks to a great second half, timely 3-point shooting and a slew of free throws in the fourth quarter, Charlottesville was able to top Albemarle 61-49 to start of JD play.
“It was about boxing out a team that’s exceptional on the boards,” said Charlottesville coach Jim Daly. “They’re not just big because they play so hard and are so strong with the ball. We just really tried to emphasize on every possession — to get 60-70 possesions — and really just value the ball and rebound like crazy. That was our focus.”
In a game where the Black Knights got just over 50 percent of the rebounds, Charlottesville the jump on the Patriots early with a 10-point advantage in the first quarter with Tammara Starchia leading the way. However, Albemarle answered the call after that behind the play of KK Barbour who helped trim the deficit down to 29-26 going into the break.
“We couldn’t find our rhythm early because we were throwing overhead passes to a very athletic jumping team and that’s where it started,” said Albemarle coach Rachel Proudfoot. “So you’ve got to get fundamental, go low, fake behind, that kind of thing and we didn’t do that.”
The third quarter saw the Patriots take a lead, but foul trouble reared its head. There were 55 total team fouls in the game and 20 of them came against Albemarle in the second half with four players of which three were starters, eventually fouling out and ending up on the bench. A pair of 3-pointers from Starchia and Alaij ah Ragland fueled the Black Knights offese in the third quarter to give the hosts a 41-38 lead going into the fourth.
“Honestly I feel like, since I’m the only senior out there, I have to take charge,” Starchia said. “I tried to give small reminders during foul shots that everybody needs to find a body and things like that because that is what we’ve been focusing on and they were going to be hard to defend against because we are a small team compared to them. And those two shots at the end, they really carried us throught.
With Barbour, Kendrick Hairtson and Sammira Hussaini all fouling out in the fourth, the Patriots offense struggled to find its way to the basket, much less open up the lid that was seemingly on it. On the other end, Charlottesville went to work with it’s double bonus advantage and free throws from Kendall Ballard and Starchia gave the Black Knights a 12-point lead with four minutes to go. Nothing changed down the stretch and Charlottesville was able to pick up the big win.
“It’s a great first step and we’ve got a young group,” Daly said. “Hopefully it helps them focus on the little things and why I’m such a nag during practice at times because we need to do all the small things against a team like that. The margin of error is not very big.”
On the night, Starchia finished with 19 points while Ballard added nine of her own. Trianna Hughes added eight points in the paint and Ragland’s outside shooting gave her the same total.
Babour finished with a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds for Albemarle. Hairston had 10 points while Hussaini finished with eight points, all of them coming at the free throw line. Outside of Barbour’s effort, the Patriots had just two field goals in the second half.
“We just need to have the ability to look at the scoreboard, see that we’re down by 10 and dig away it instead of having to be told by the coaches that that’s what needs to happen,” Proudfoot said. “We have some leaders on this team and we need them to go out there and make that statement. It’d be huge.”
Albemarle (3-1, 0-1) travels to face defending JD champ Monticello on Friday at 7:45 p.m.
Charlottesville (1-1, 1-0) host Louisa County on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
