Orange County needed its ball-handler back. Monday night they got Kiani Hudgens into the lineup and it gave the Hornets a major spark as Orange beat Western Albemarle 44-38.
“(That’s) huge. Huge,” said Orange coach David Rabe. “Just having her on the floor takes pressure off of other people.”
Hudgens returned to the lineup after sitting out with an ankle injury and helped set the table for a strong night by Markiana Smith and Rebecca Harvey. Smith finished with 11 points while Harvey paced the Hornets with 12 on the night. Smith’s continued emergence in the post should help Orange as the Hornets try and get locked in for the postseason.
“She’s starting to see when she needs to take it one-on-one and when she doesn’t,” Rabe said. “The more that she does that, it opens up some other people. This game and last game she’s found Harvey when she needs to and they double down on her. The two of them working together really is the key for us.”
The Hornets led Western by just three after the third quarter, but managed to pull away early in the fourth with a 7-2 run. The Warriors couldn’t counterpunch as the squad’s young roster continues to try and find its footing offensively.
“Figuring out ‘how to win games’ only means that you’ve been through enough experiences, enough different things that you put yourself in better spots to have a chance,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “At Louisa we figured that out, at Fluvanna we didn’t, tonight we didn’t. We can’t make the plays we need on either end to send that game one way or the other. The flip side of that is that, back in December, we weren’t in position to even do that.”
Erin Clark and Emma Kulow handled the bulk of the Warriors’ scoring. Clark led Western with 16 points while Kulow finished with nine. Western has been without the services of projected leading scorers Anna Sumpter and Rachel Cook for nearly the entire year due to knee injuries, but the playing time that the entire roster has acquired in their absence could set the table for a resurgent year next season with Sumpter potentially back in the lineup.
The win over Western (4-16) likely locked up no less than the No. 6 slot in the Jefferson District tournament for Orange. The Hornets, now with eight wins, one more than last season’s total, will also get a chance to do some damage in the four-team Conference 16 tournament, where one win in the semifinals will vault a team into the region field.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Rabe said. “The Jefferson has got some great basketball in it and it’s anybody’s game any night. We want to try and finish up strong and see if we can make some noise.”
