Nobody has been able to practice much lately—in fact many locals teams got in just a single practice over the last week. But when that one practice doesn’t go well, the results can be particularly frustrating.
“We only got one practice this week which probably isn’t really different from anybody else, but it wasn’t a good practice,” said Orange girls coach Dave Rabe. “We played tonight the way that we practiced. Our game is to push the ball and we didn’t want to push the ball.”
Orange struggled to find its rhythm early and fell to Western Albemarle 64-41 as the Warriors put up some big offensive numbers.
Orange set out to eliminate Western’s advantage in the post by packing into a 2-3 zone, but Warriors guards Kelsey Swanson and Virginia Carew hit a pair of threes in the opening sequence of plays that forced the Hornets to spread out a bit. From there, Ellen Shaffrey took over. She scored six of the first eight points in an 11-2 run by the Warriors.
“If teams are going to play zone and really pack it in we need our guards to make plays,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “Kelsey made a lot of those early, Virginia made that 3-pointer early, and that got us off on the right foot.”
Shaffrey finished with 24 points and dominated the glass with 19 rebounds. She also dished out five assists and forced four steals. One of Shaffrey’s frontcourt mates, Carolyn Schneller, also had a big time night with 14 points and five rebounds.
Swanson rounded out the scoring effort with 11 points and also came up with six assists.
Orange managed to get back into a groove for stretches during the second half, but could never slice into the lead enough to even the game. The Hornets cut it to five points early in the fourth, but Western responded and quickly extended the lead back to 11.
Jasmine Johnson led Orange with 13 points while Sade Johnson knocked home 10 points.
Depending on the weather over the next week and how many games are played, Orange appears to have control of third place in the district while Western has solidified the runner-up spot.
Western and Orange are both slated for a number of games next week. Weather will determine times and locations.
