Miller School’s girls basketball team got 21 points from Naya Hunter and forced a whopping 33 turnovers Wednesday evening in Crozet, cruising to a 75-41 win over visiting Norfolk Collegiate in the VISAA Division II quarterfinals.
The Mavericks, who also got 19 points from Olivia Wagner and 14 from Kianna Johnson, closed the first quarter on a 10-0 run, holding the Oaks without a basket for the final 5:32 of the period.
Hunter’s old-fashioned three-point play with 6:40 to go in the second boosted the lead to 14, and Miller ended up forcing 21 turnovers in the half, finishing on an 8-0 burst over the last two-and-a-half minutes, punctuated by a fast-break reverse layup from Wagner allowing Miller to take a 33-12 lead into the break.
“We had our hands active,” Miller coach James Braxton said. “We did a good job of getting steals as far as pressing, because they were struggling a little bit with it. We still turned it over too much on our side of the ball for my liking, but we’ll take the win.”
The Mavericks kept the margin at that level for much of the third, and Hunter beat the buzzer with a jumper from the free-throw line to make it 52-29 after three, and the Oaks got no closer than 21 thereafter.
Tyler Hodges paced Norfolk Collegiate with 11. Iris Krantz added 10 and Brianna Powell eight for the Oaks, who never led in the rout.
“Sometimes when it’s a [state] quarterfinal game and you kind of walk into it thinking you’re going to win, but it doesn’t always work that way,” Braxton said. We felt like we were more talented coming into the game, but talent doesn’t always win games. You have to come in and execute. We didn’t execute as much as I would like, but we had stretches where we did. Not a bad effort.”
Miller will play in the state semifinals Friday at 1:00 in Petersburg. It will be the Mavericks’ sixth consecutive appearance.
