At this point you can essentially set your watch by it.
Alajiah Ragland becomes a different player in crunch time for Charlottesville High.
Her team knows it and Ragland knows it.
Heck, the opposition knows it.
“We got up three and I called the timeout because I knew they were going to come after us,” said Fluvanna coach Chad White. “(Ragland) made plays. She’s a really good player and she refused to let her team lose.”
But some nights, like Friday against Fluvanna, it looks like resistance may just be futile.
Ragland scored eight straight points in a two minute stretch that completely changed the game and helped spark Charlottesvile to a 45-41 victory over Fluvanna County in the Jefferson District tournament championship.
“I feel like the last few minutes of the game is the time to go hard and be ready to play,” said Ragland who finished with a team-high 15 points. “We know when we’re down, we’ve got to pick it up as a team and not fall apart.
Ragland got going just in time as Fluvanna had built a 36-33 lead. That’s when White called that timeout in an effort to ready his squad for the charge he knew was coming. The Flucos had played extremely well defensively up until that point and with Katie Stutz and Tamara Lewis carrying the load with 16 and 15 points respectively, Fluvanna appeared to be in a solid spot.
The turnovers and Ragland converting them into points though turned the entire contest on its head as Charlottesville took control in a matter of minutes.
“We didn’t do a good of taking care of it down the stretch,” White said.
Kajesha Taylor continued her solid play of late with a 12-point outing, giving Charlottesville another reliable scoring option. Taylor’s emergence down the stretch has been a big part of the Black Knights’ recent success.
“She’s been in double figures five of her last seven games,” said Charlottesville coach Jim Daly. “She really has stepped up. A couple of times tonight she caught the ball at the high post and just ripped through for lay-ups, she was really strong with the ball.”
Destinee McDonald was hounded all night by the Fluvanna defense but finished with 10 hard fought points.
Both teams will start conference tournament play next week with the Black Knights taking on the winner of the Liberty Christian/Amherst contest in a Conference 23 semifinal Wednesday night. Fluvanna, meanwhile, takes on Western Albemarle for the third time in the Conference 29 quarterfinals Tuesday.
