It was a seven-minute stretch to start the game and that was all that the Western Albemarle girls basketball team needed.
Fluvanna County simply could not overcome the early run by Western. The Warriors defense stymied the Flucos out of the gates, forcing a slew of turnovers and on the other end, Western finished in transition and spotted up on open jumpers to the tune of a 16-1 run. With the game almost perfectly even the rest of the way, Western was able to open up its Jefferson District slate with a 46-31 win on the road.
“Defensively, we’re always a team that wants to get after it and we’ll do it different ways with different personnel depending on what year it is,” said Warriors coach Kris Wright. “But defense is the cornerstone of our program. It gave us some really good things in the first quarter, gave us a cushion to work with.”
The most lopsided sequence of the night started with a Rachel Cooke field goal and went into the last moments of the first quarter. In that span Western’s defense allowed just one free throw to pass through the net. The Warriors pressed when they could and forced Fluvanna into errant passes as they looked to avoid a 10-second violation.
“We came out with a lot of intensity and in practice coach (Wright) was telling me to drive a lot more,” Cooke said. “I think we just didn’t want this to be a close game so we kept it up tempo. We either a team that stays ahead by 12 points or so or lets a team come back and battle. We want to be that team that always keeps up by 12 points.”
Seven different Warriors registered a point in the first quarter, but Fluvanna County finally stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer from sophomore Kiana Childress with the clock ticking down. In the second quarter, the Flucos weren’t able to breakout offensively, but an improved rebounding effort on the other end of the floor slowed Western down, keeping it a 15-point game going into the break.
“We talked about it and I told them that a lot of it was coming up with 50-50 balls,” said Flucos coach Chad White. “We were ready to play, we were emotional, but at the end of the day it does not matter unless you execute. I think we picked up the intensity after the first quarter, but even with that, we still couldn’t make the easy shots and they executed. Anytime they had the ball in transition they made the right pass, they finished.”
Fluvanna’s biggest push came in the fourth quarter behind the play of Childress. The Flucos were able to get to within 10 points of the lead with five minutes to play, but that was as much as Western would allow. Knocking down six of ten free throws in the fourth quarter and getting a pair of baskets from Emma Kulow, the Warriors closed out the game strong.
“We feel like if we get 45-55-65 depending on the night, we’ve got a really good chance to win because of the way we defend,” Wright said. “To do that though we’ve got to get shots on the rim, be aggressive with good decision making attached to that.”
Five Warriors had six or more points including freshman Anna Sumpter who led with 11 points. Cooke added 10 points. Kulow and Emily Marbury each had seven points. Abby Sewell finished with six points.
For the Flucos, Childress led the way with 13 points including a trio of 3-pointers. Kiersten Allen and Kate Stutz both finished with six points.
Western (5-5, 1-0) lines up against Sherando in Crozet during the first round of the Daily Progress/NBC 29 Holiday Classic on December 27.
Fluvanna (4-5, 1-0) will play in its own tournament starting on December 27 as well.
