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Takeover: Louisa girls hoops wins first district title since 1997

Photo by Ashley Thornton

As chants of “LC, LC, LC, LC” rang out at Albemarle High’s gym in the fourth quarter of Friday’s Jefferson District girls basketball title game, it was clear.

 

A new era of Louisa County girls basketball has officially arrived.

 

The No. 4-seeded Lions completed a journey from a five-win season two years ago to the top of the Jefferson District heap Friday night, knocking off No. 2-seeded Western Albemarle 63-46 in the district tournament championship game.

 

“I can’t put this into words, I’ve been in this program since sixth grade and this is the best year we’ve ever had,” said Louisa senior Anna Agee. “We’ve been talking as seniors since ninth grade about putting a number on a banner and we finally got it done this year.”

 

Agee blew the win open early in the fourth quarter. With the Lions flirting with a double digit lead, she ripped off eight straight points for the Lions including a pair of 3-pointers. Suddenly Louisa was up 57-42 and in complete control of the game.

 

“We didn’t react very well to how you have to reel games in, you have to go ‘stop, score’ and we didn’t do that,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “We were trying to get it all back at once, hopefully we learn from that a little bit. We were hanging but then one more spurt (from Agee) and we got out of character and you can’t do that against teams that are talented like they are.”

 

Tyi Skinner exploded for 25 points for the Lions in another strong performance by the sophomore point guard. She knocked down four 3-pointers and went 5-for-5 at the free throw line. Along with Agee’s 15 and another 14 from freshman Carmella Jackson, it was more than the Warriors, who got a solid outing from Eleri Hayden with 15 points and nine rebounds, could handle.

 

The game was at a near deadlock at the half with Louisa holding a slight 29-27 edge. But the pace favored the Lions who like to push the ball more than the Warriors who can push it but are also capable of winning a slower paced, rock fight of a game.

 

Once Agee got into a groove, that put the Warriors on their heels, despite 10 points and five from Elisabeth Coffman and another eight points from Mady Starsia.

 

“The little things started to add up, whether it was losing Agee or not rotating the way we usually rotate,” Wright said. “We missed some of the rotations that we normally make. Our defensive transition was there but it wasn’t alert.”

 

The win was sweet vindication for a group of Louisa seniors who had their first winning season during their high school careers and bought into the process when Nick Schreck took over before last season and stayed with it despite an 0-2 start in the district this year that contributed to that fourth-place finish in the regular season.

 

“Their first couple of years in the program they didn’t have a lot of success and they stuck with the program,” Schreck said. “When we took over last year it was a big change but we had a little bit of success and they really started to believe we could accomplish something. They’ve just been our leaders.”

 

That six-member senior class includes Agee, a scorer and consistent post presence DaNikqua Marshall, but there’s also Cheyanne Baldini, Avisha Terry and Dakota Baldini as well as one of the squad’s most underrated players, Kavia Terry, a relentless defender in the backcourt.

 

“She’s our lockdown defender and she doesn’t do a lot stat-wise but what she does on and off the court, it’s unmatchable,” Schreck said.

 

Now the Lions point toward the Conference 19 tournament where they’ll get a bye through the first round of the playoffs as the tournament’s top seed. They’ll face the winner of the Chancellor/Courtland first round game in the conference semifinals Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at King George. Western will compete in the Conference 29 tournament Monday where the Warriors are the No. 3 seed in a particularly challenging conference and will face Monticello in the first round.

 

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