It was a simple, but demanding exclamation.
“It stops right here,” William Monroe girl’s basketball coach Phil Lamb’s voice boomed through the Stanardsville gymnasium. “If you don’t want to play, let me know. I’ll put someone else in.”
With five minutes and 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Madison County had cut the Dragons’ lead to four points at 23-19 and forced a turnover on the previous possession. Lamb was clearly frustrated with his team’s play and called a timeout to discuss the situation.
“We were flat tonight.” Lamb said of the timeout. “I felt our energy was very low. And I thought it was a critical time in the game where we had to make sure we were focused on getting defensive stops. I wanted to get their attention a little bit to make sure we stepped up and played the right kind of basketball.”
The speech ignited the Dragon defense and offense equally, as they went on an 11-2 run to end the third quarter. The momentum gained during that run carried Monroe to victory in the fourth quarter, ending with a final score of 52-32.
Madison County stayed competitive in the first have by leaning heavily on Jordan Aylor and Rachel Strahan, who took turns slashing to the Dragons’ basket.
“They’re [Madison’s] main offensive threat, and we kept having breakdowns not covering them the way we had prepared,” Lamb said. “We wanted to take them out of the equation.” It was only after Monroe was able to shut down Taylor and Strahan that they were able to pull away.
Sophomore Alex Cave, who finished with 15 points and was 9 of 10 from the free throw line, and Cochran, who had 11 points and was 5 of 10 from the stripe, led the Dragons offensively. Cochran was especially vital to taking the game over late, as she drove down the lane repeatedly drawing fouls along the way.
“Typically she’s going to have a post player on her,” Lamb said of Cochran. “With her strength she can get to the basket. She kept looking for her own shot, and we needed that at that point.”
