With the way things were looking, someone was going to have to step in. As Louisa County was piling up easy baskets in the second half, Orange County’s Jasmin Johnson decided to take the game over and get her team back out in the front.
“I had the hot shooting hand,” Johnson said. “I told my teammates that I needed to get the ball because I was feeling good.”
Johnson scored 10 points in a 90 second stretch, and when the Hornets reclaimed the lead in the last minute of play, teammate Sade Johnson was able to put the nail in the coffin as Orange held off a feisty Lions squad, 66-61.
“Jasmin’s been a leader for us defensively all year,” said Orange coach Dave Rabe. “We’re trying to get in some situations where we can get her the ball more. We don’t have a lot of post presence and so she has to wear a lot of hats. Sometimes she’s going to have to take the ball up top and sometimes down low. She keeps battling and she’s getting better each game.”
Her timing couldn’t have been better. The Hornets were in the driver’s seat with a double digit lead going into the third quarter.
However, Louisa’s offense finally got rolling in the second half and the Lions were able to take a 2-point lead in the finals seconds of the third frame just before Sade Johnson put her squad back out in front by one on a long range 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded. It’s the second time in two weeks that Johnson has connected at the third quarter buzzer with a heave.
Behind Javanique Burruss, Kadijah Winkey and Raven Robinson, the Lions were able to build a 5-point lead midway through the fourth quarter as they took advantage of their size in the paint and second chance shots while also connecting on their open 3-pointers.
“Louisa’s got some shooters,” Rabe said. “We came in hoping to take away their inside game with our two-three zone, but you can’t let them have open three’s when you’re down.”
Orange switched to man-to-man to fix the problems. It worked and then final minutes of the game belonged to Jasmin Johnson, who finished the night with 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Sade Johnson wound up leading all scorers with 26 points while also contributing four steals.
Burruss scored nine points, and was likely just an overtime period shy of putting together what would have been a remarkable quadruple-double. The talented freshman collected nine rebounds, nine assists and eight blocks despite missing much of the second quarter because of foul trouble.
“We have a great collective team,” said Lions coach Mya Braxton. “But I thought we didn’t move around very well on offense. We were settling. A week ago we were playing really great team basketball. We need everyone to be responsible and for everyone to play their roles.”
Robinson scored 25 points in the loss, while Winkey tallied 14 and also hauled in seven boards.
Orange (7-5, 4-3 Jefferson) will host Spotsylvania today at 7:30 p.m.
Louisa (4-5, 3-4) will travel to Goochland on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
