Ugly is obviously a matter of opinion.
“We’re okay with ugly,” said Western girls basketball coach Kris Wright. “Great defense is not necessarily ugly to us.”
The Warriors won a nip and tuck clash with Albemarle Friday night 40-22, winning for the first time against the Patriots in three opportunities in a game that required each squad to fight and scrap for every basket.
“If you want to lock horns, play great defense and battle, we like those kind of games, that’s fine with us,” Wright said. “I like where we’re going with this group, I think we’re growing up and learning a lot about ourselves and how to handle really big atmospheres and big games like this one.”
Eleri Hayden led the charge for the Warriors, pouring in 22 points and pulling down 10 rebounds and nabbing four steals in a big-time effort.
“We know they play very aggressive defense and we can get flustered by that a lot, but we just have to focus in, play our game,” Hayden said. “It was really good that we were able to just slow it down and have a lot of defensive stops.”
Western led just 14-13 at the break, but held Albemarle to just nine second half points while simultaneously taking better care of the ball as the Warriors pulled away. It was a strong turnaround from the first two meetings that the Patriots won.
“Both times they really kind of took it to us,” Wright said. “So tonight we wanted to make sure that we at least competed. We’re ecstatic that we won because (it’s a) rivalry game, they play us tough, they play so hard, they’re dedicated defensively so we just wanted to compete with that.”
Down the stretch, Elisabeth Coffman hit seven of eight fourth quarter free throws. The sophomore point guard scored 11 of her 14 points in that final frame. That was enough to prevent any late charge from the Patriots.
Albemarle was on a roll coming into the clash with the Warriors, building their foundation on a stingy defensive effort night in and night out. That same intensity was there defensively against Western, but the Patriots sputtered offensively, struggling to finish off several easy plays around the basket. Kayla Mann finished with a team-high seven points while Haylee Howard-Radde and Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper had five points each.
For Western, Coffman and Hayden combined for all but four of Western’s points, but Shannon Moore and Mady Starsia got the job done on the boards with five rebounds each.
The Warriors’ win creates a wild four-way tie at the top of the Jefferson District standings as Albemarle, Louisa County, Charlottesville and Western Albemarle each have two district losses.
Western will travel to take on Fluvanna County Tuesday while Albemarle squares off with Louisa County in a critical home game.
