Charlottesville’s Destinee McDonald and the rest of her highly-accomplished senior classmates didn’t get to where they are — three straight conference titles and two straight Jefferson District regular season championships and 57 wins over the last three years — by getting frustrated in the face of adversity.
Which is why it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that McDonald was quick to find a silver lining in a 71-32 state quarterfinal loss to unbeaten Monacan, the Region 4A East title-winning squad led by UConn-signee Megan Walker.
“We should be crying, but we ended our season with a bang, we played the No. 2 team in the nation, the No. 1 player in the country, this is awesome,” McDonald said. “And we held (Walker) to 18 points, she usually has like 50. That’s a big accomplishment for us.”
Walker actually averages closer to 25.4 points per game, but McDonald’s point stands — the Black Knights rose to a major challenge and for 16 minutes, they were certainly in the game. Walker led Monacan with 18 points and five rebounds while Abby Oguich nearly posted a double double with 11 points and nine rebounds as Monacan earned a spot in the state final four Saturday. But that didn’t come easily for the Chiefs, not with Charlottesville playing high intensity basketball from the opening tip.
“That team (CHS) is so well-coached, he took us out of a lot of stuff we normally do, I could tell he was really prepared,” said Monacan coach Larry Starr. “Because they took us out of so many things, we didn’t play with the intensity we normally do, we didn’t boxing out, we were just really struggling to play well. We pulled out of the press which we never do and basically it was to make sure that we learn to play halfcourt defense.”
The Black Knights took it to the Chiefs with a relentless effort that seemed to catch Monacan off guard in the first half. Charlottesville knew they’d need a near perfect effort to pull off an upset and despite a valiant first half performance, they were down 31-20 at the break. Alajiah Ragland scored nine of her 11 points in the first half. Ragland also pulled down 11 boards for a double double.
“We really wanted to emphasize coming out with energy, focus and fight,” said Charlottesville coach Jim Daly. “I think we showed that, I can’t ask for anything more from our girls than how we fought in that first half. They fly in transition harder than anything we’ve really seen and we worked really hard to get back.”
Monacan pulled away after the break, extending its lead to 20 points and held Charlottesville to just 12 total points in the second half. Walker scored her 2000th career point during the third quarter.
“I thought the intensity was better, I thought we got on track a lot better, but a lot of that is attributed to that team (CHS),” Starr said. “They out-hustled us in the first half, they crashed the boards and I think they’re really well coached.”
McDonald finished with eight points on the night while Zanequa Thomas nabbed three steals. Daeja Wade and Kaniyah Key chipped in five points each.
Jaiden Morris had 16 points and five rebounds for Monacan. The Chiefs pulled down 24 offensive rebounds on the night and second chance points played a big role in their explosive second half.
The loss wrapped up several productive careers at Charlottesville, the group collectively known as the Buford Five: McDonald, Ragland, Thomas, Alexis Henderson and Daeja Wade.
“This group led us to four straight trips of region tournament basket, three conference championships, back-to-back Jefferson District titles — that’s an extraordinary career,” Daly said. To go down swinging in a big-time arena against one of the best teams in state history is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m really proud of this group, it’s been special.”
