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Shake It Off: Monroe girls get going, earn spot in state final four

Photo by Brian Mellott

Nobody could blame the William Monroe girls basketball team for having a case of nerves at the outset of their Class 3 state quarterfinal clash versus Park View-South Hill on Friday night in Orange.

 

After all, the Greene Dragons were looking for the program’s first state tournament win since 1987 and had what seemed like the entire county jammed into the bleachers to watch.

 

That crowd saw the Dragons get 17 points from senior Samantha Brunelle and end the game with a 25-6 second-half run, earning a spot in the semifinals with a 56-31 win and a matchup against Central District heavyweight Hopewell on Tuesday at Petersburg High School.

 

Martha Apple added 15 and Hailey Morris had 14 for the Dragons.

 

Perhaps the nerves were why it took over six minutes for either team to get a field goal. Then Apple broke the ice.

 

Apple, who had opened the scoring with two free throws, dropped in consecutive layups in 30 seconds to get the offense clicking and the crowd energized, helping her team to an 8-1 lead with a minute to go in the first quarter.

 

“You try to tell them it’s just another game, but in their heads, they know it’s states. They want it bad,” Monroe head coach Jess Stafford said. “Once we settled down a little bit, we started to be able to take over.”

 

After the visitors from Mecklenburg County got a triple from Nakki Shabeans to make it 8-4 after one, Monroe got one each from Brunelle and Morris to open a 20-12 lead midway through the period, then had another 6-0 spurt late in the period for a 28-15 lead at the break.

 

Unlike the offense, the Dragons’ defense was sharp the whole way through, as it frustrated Park View into 32 turnovers. Five of them came on Park View’s first five possessions of the second half, but much like the first half, Monroe was unable to take advantage, going more than five minutes without a basket as Park View rattled off a 10-0 run to cut it to 31-25 with 2:04 to go in the third on the strength of a pair of layups from Neyia Hawkins.

 

“We’re a defensively-oriented team,” Stafford said. “We spend 80 percent of our practice time on that. Sometimes that bites us offensively, as you can tell, but defense travels, so even if you have a lid on the rim there’s no reason why you can’t hold a team under 35 points. That was our goal tonight.”

 

But Morris, who had 11 of her points during the big run, sandwiched a runner and an old-fashioned three-point play around a trey from Brunelle, then hit two more in the fourth quarter. The second made it 47-30 with 5:19 to play, and Park View never seriously threatened after that, giving the roving  green-clad Monroe fanbase at least one more chance to hit the road to see their team.

 

“It’s pretty heartwarming to know they support us and come all the way to Orange to watch us,” Morris said. “We feed off of that energy.”

 

Mikya Harrison led Park View with 10 and Azaria Williams added seven for the Dragons, who complete their season with a record of 17-12.

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