Western Albemarle coach Kris Wright was doing his best to help his squad enjoy winning a Jefferson District tournament title that completed the program’s first back-to-back tournament championships since the 1980s. He was loud about it — “these are the moments you’ll remember, soak it in” he said just before the trophy presentation in the wake of a 39-35 victory over Charlottesville.
The Warriors seemed to heed Wright’s advice — or they knew it intrinsically since the seasoned group has spent so much time on the court together. They knew how special it was and they knew how much work they’d put in to make it happen.
“We’ve always pushed each other as a team but we’ve always built each other up and been encouraging,” said Western senior Elisabeth Coffman. “It’s been a great journey. It’s something that we’ll never forget.”
They needed every ounce of hard work and experience to pull it off against a Charlottesville squad they were playing for the fourth time and that led the game by eight with 6:37 left to play. Western didn’t panic, methodically closing the gap over the next four minutes before Sydney Sherman, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, hit a pair of free throws with 2:04 left to tie the game at 35-35. The Warriors finished the game on a 13-3 run, leaning on Sherman down the stretch as she asserted herself on the boards, helped out with back court ball-handling and pretty much did whatever the Warriors needed from her in the closing minutes.
“We knew some of our shots weren’t falling so we knew we could use our posts to our advantage and try and get rebounds,” Sherman said. “Usually we have to have a reversal (in the backcourt) in case we get trapped. They’re really good at pressure and can steal a lot.”
Charlottesville put together a valiant effort despite missing two starters in T.C. Younger and Carmella Jackson, storming back from a 23-17 halftime deficit to take that eight-point fourth quarter lead. Tati Allen-Taylor and L’akasia Calloway led that third quarter surge with four and five points in that frame respectively, but it was the defense that let CHS seize control, holding the Warriors without a field goal in the third. Things unravelled in the final four minutes though as mistakes and fatigue seemed to snowball when Western started countering with a trap when they were on defense.
“Our girls showed a ton of fight, they were playing really hard,” said Charlottesville coach Jim Daly. “I just didn’t do a great job in the final three minutes myself, but hats off to Western they executed down the stretch.”
The Warriors went 3-1 against the Black Knights this year, with Western’s lone loss coming in the Holiday Tournament. Each time, Charlottesville threw something different at Western and challenged them.
“Credit to Charlottesville for making us not score for a long time, they were really getting after it on defense, really causing some disruption,” Wright said. “We were out of sorts, out of rhythm, out of sync. Finally in a timeout I said this comes down to you guys, you’ve got to be tough enough to handle this. Settle down and we’ll dig our way back into this, and credit to our girls, they did.”
Caity Driver finished with nine points and five rebounds. Sherman added three assists and four steals to her big night with 15 points and nine boards. Coffman had eight points and four assists while Annie Meenan had six rebounds and Ellie Plantz swiped three steals.
Calloway led the Black Knights with 11 points while Allen-Taylor had eight.
Monticello was the last squad to go unbeaten through the regular season and win the tournament back in 2012-2013 and could have repeated the feat in 2013-2014 but the tournament title game was cancelled due to weather.
Both teams advance to their respective region tournaments where the Black Knights host William Byrd Friday night at 6 p.m. in the Region 4D first round while Western hosts Fort Defiance the same night at 6 p.m. in the Region 3C first round.
