By Betsy Haugh / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
For the second time this season, the Eastern View Cyclones got the best of Louisa County High School, defeating the Lions 56-45 Tuesday night.
Turnovers plagued the Lions, as missed opportunities and giveaways prevented the team from establishing the momentum they would need to defeat a strong Eastern View side.
“They’re a very good defensive team, and sometimes we try to force things, and against a good defensive team that’s in the right position you’re going to have turnovers,” said Louisa head coach Jarred Soles. “It’s a matter of cutting those down as we get better and better at running our offense.”
Eastern View head coach Mike McCombs’s outlook on his team’s rate of play went hand in hand with Soles’s comments.
“I thought when we went into the 1-3-1 half-court trap we started generating some turnovers that allowed us to get our tempo a little bit more,” McCombs said. “We didn’t execute our half-court offense very well, so it was important that we were able to change the tempo of the game a little bit depending on how we converted our lay ups and we made free throws.”
While the Lions came up short Tuesday night, the squad was able to take plenty of positives out of their performance, the main bright spot coming in Javanique Burruss. Burruss, a junior who also excels in track and field as a hurdler and jumper for Louisa, returned to the basketball team this season after taking last year off to focus on track. Burruss recorded 21 points, going three for four beyond the arc, and pulling down six rebounds.
“You can draw up X’s and O’s all you want, but sometimes you need a player that’s gonna make her own move, her own cut, her own pass, and her creativity is something that we definitely value,” Soles said of his standout junior.
Eastern View juniors Taylor Shanks (14 points) and Sherlina Bowles (13 points) led the Cyclones in scoring.
As the Lions look forward to finishing out the 2011 calendar year with more out-of-district play, Soles is extremely optimistic about his team’s future.
“What we need to work on is the little details, small details. We’re learning our offenses, our defenses, but it’s easy when you’re first learning something to miss the minor details,” Soles said. “But everybody knows that’s what makes bad teams average, average teams good, good teams great, is those minor details, and we’re still missing those, but hopefully we’ll get them.”
Louisa (2-2) travels to Culpeper for a 7:30 pm tip-off Wednesday night. Eastern View (3-2) opens play in its district Friday night, as they travel to James Monroe High School.
