Phil Lamb likes his teams odds of winning when the ball gets spread around and the depth of his squad gets a chance to shine. But every once in a while it never hurts to have a player do all the heavy lifting if the others are having a rough shooting night. Alex Cave was able to get her teammates inlovled in the second half much in the way she has all year, but were it not for her play in the first quarter, William Monroe might not have been so lucky to defend their home court against Orange County in a 53-43 win on Tuesday night.
“Orange has played us tough every game for the last three or four years now, so I wasn’t surprised by that, we expected that,” Lamb said. “Alex’s decision-making was great for us tonight. She shot when she was supposed, passed when she was supposed to. She was superb. And thankfully she really showed up in the first half because nobody really else did.”
Before the game Lamb explained to Cave that college players shoot 100 shots before the game. His guard was a bit apprehensive about the idea.
“I told him, ‘Coach, my arm’s getting tired and if I make my shots now I won’t make them in the game,” Cave said. “He said not to worry, that I would make them in the game. I guess I came out strong. We weren’t playing so hot in the first half, so someone had to step up.”
After both teams struggled in the opening minutes of play, Cave took over on both ends of the court, forcing turnovers and running down the court and slipping in layups or knocking down jumpers. By virtue of scoring 14 of her team’s 16 first quarter points, the Greene Dragons junior gave her team a nine-point lead going into the second frame.
The Hornets refused to go away though – a theme all night. After struggling early, Orange worked its way back into the game in the second quarter behind the play of Gequetta Davis. The with the hornets interior defense making stops, Davis and fellow guard Arianna Bradley fueled a 14-2 run to give their team a 3-point lead with two minutes until halftime.
“The last two weeks we’ve had our hardest practices of the year and the girls have responded,” said Hornets coach Dave Rabe. “We’ve played a lot better lately, picking up a win against Goochland on Friday and tonight I thought we took another step forward with the way we fought. That’s a great team and it’s always hard to beat great teams at home, but we battled.”
It was a game of runs frome each squad though, and the Dragons struck back after Orange jumped ahead. Monroe took back the momentum to finish the first half with an 8-0 run and go into the third quarter up by five.
“I thought we were really able to set the tone with our defense, especially going into the third quarter,” Lamb said.
Both teams made it an uptempo gave in the third frame with the Dragons scoring two points for everyone point the Hornets put up to grab a 14-point lead. Orange fought back to within seven points to finish the third, but with Katelyn Roach and Alexa Smith contributing for Monroe, the Dragons were able to stay up by double digits for most of the fourth. The Hornets closed the gap to eight with 1:22 left in the fourth, this time with Bradley running the show as Davis fouled out. Orange was unable to put Monroe at the free throw line to stop the clock though and mount another comeback.
Cave had 28 points on the night with Smith chipping in 10 points and Roach throwing in five more.
Davis led the Hornets with 17 points while Bradley chipped in 10. Paige Phillips finished with five points.
“Arianna is still a bit slow as she fights through the knee problems, but she’s doing a lot of things when she doesn’t have the ball to help Gequetta get open to shoot,” Rabe said. “They’re both so good that we’re trying to use them by finding out who’s the hotter shooter on the night, who’s the better dribbler on the night.”
Orange (6-10, 3-6 Jefferson) travels to Fluvanna County on Friday night at 6 p.m.
Monroe (15-3, 10-2) also goes on the road on Friday 6 p.m. when they play visitor to Charlottesville.
