When his team jumped out to a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter Fluvanna County coach Chad White pleaded with his team to “not let up.” While everything was going the Flucos way, thanks largely to a well executed half-court trap, White’s words were wise. Just a bit of foul trouble later and Goochland was back in the game, in a kind of odd first half typical of season openers. But after the Bulldogs made things interesting late in the second quarter, Fluvanna found its legs again, and in the second, they never lost them. As a result the Flucos rolled to a 47-29 win over their visitors to pick their first win of the year thanks to a full effort from a heavy rotation.
“We want to put a lot of pressure on teams and seeing if they can handle it,” White said. “If they can’t that leads to a lot of turnovers which hopefully leads to a lot of buckets in transition. Walking it down to a half court set, unless we get it to (Millicent Williams) it’s probably not going to get much done. So we want to use 10 people.”
The story all night was Fluvanna’s aggressive defense which executed White’s half court trap effectively. The Flucos may have struggled from the field on offense, but they created more than enough turnovers with junior guard Ashleigh Harris leading the way with a 7-steal night.
“We were really aggressive and tried to stay active the entire time,” Harris said. “I’m surprised we weren’t hitting the floor because it’s really tiring.”
Fluvanna held Goochland scoreless in the first quarter and cruised to a 15-0 lead heading into the second. But after struggling to get the ball to the top of key, when Goochland finally did it drew fouls as and Tamara Taylor put her team on the board. The one area the Bulldogs thrived most of the night was in the rebounding department, and thanks to Taylor and Chakiryn Jackson on the boards, the visitors made it a game as they scored 12 unanswered points to make it 15-12 with just under three minutes before halftime.
“The second quarter we played a really good solid six or seven minutes, but that was all we played,” said Goochland coach Sarah Voyack.
After that point, Fluvanna scored eight of the next 12 points to bump its 3-point lead up to seven, and with the trap creating the kind of turnovers in the third quarter that it did in the first, the gap was inflated to 18 heading into the fourth. The Flucos never let up after that and handled the final frame to wrap up the win.
Harris had an all-around night scoring seven points to go with her seven steals and added five assists as well.
“She has great hands,” White said Harris defensive performance. “As a freshman, I didn’t allow her to reach a lot. She’s gotten a lot better and more discipline, timing when she goes for the steal and all that. She’s gotten better so we’re just letting her go at it. If they can’t handle it, she’s going to take it from them.”
Millicent Williams battled foul trouble but finished with seven points too. Tara Foster imposed her will in the minutes she played, hauling in a team-best five rebounds and scoring eight points. Freshman Kiana Childress led the Flucos with 10 points thanks to her play in transition.
For Goochland, little worked outside of Taylor and Jackson but the tandem each pulled their weight. Taylor led all scorers with 15 points and had eight rebounds, two steals and a block. Jackson hit four field goals for eight points and also had eight rebounds.
“We have potential, but if we don’t work for it, it doesn’t matter,” Voyack said. “That was the message after the game.”
Goochland (0-1) plays Pope John Paul the Great in the Trinity Episcopal Tournament on Friday.
Fluvanna (1-0) hosts Spotsylvania on Friday.
