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Albemarle girls press past Western

Photo by Bart Isley

Albemarle’s girls basketball team knew what it had to do to beat Western Albemarle and in the third quarter, the Patriots got locked in and turned up the defensive intensity.

 

“We knew we had to (press) ,” said Albemarle’s Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper. “We were able to read them and get them to make mistakes and turnovers and then counterattack.”

 

Using a stifling press, the Patriots forced a Western team that looked comfortable in the first half into a series of mistakes and missed shots. In turn, Albemarle took control, pulling away 42-39 for a big early season win for the Patriots.

 

Albemarle has had a good week, beating Louisa County on Tuesday night before knocking off the Warriors, giving them a solid foundation in the Jefferson District race. The hard-fought win over Western was particularly critical.

 

“It’s always like that against Western, just physically and mentally it’s always going to be a rough game,” Tyler-Coooper said. “But we were able to handle it, especially in the third quarter.”

 

Albemarle went on a 12-2 run that spanned the entire third quarter, shutting down the Warriors’ offense after Western entered halftime with a ton of momentum. The Warriors were up 18-9 actually after the first quarter ended with five quick points in the final 11 seconds, but after that the Warriors’ offense sputtered.

 

“The entire third quarter, we let them speed us up and if you’re going to attack off the press break you have to execute and finish and we made one shot out of that,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “If you’re not going to finish on it you’ve got to pull it out and run your stuff. We’ve got to be a little more mature with the atmosphere.”

 

Elizabeth Coffman led the Western offense with 11 points, including a 3-pointer that kept the Warriors in striking distance late. Despite those efforts though, Albemarle finished at the free throw line down the stretch to keep Western at bay, with Kayla Mann’s 4-for-6 performance at the line in the fourth leading the way. Albemarle didn’t have a single field goal in the fourth, closing out the win entirely at the line.

 

Tyler-Cooper finished with 15 points to lead the Patriots, getting the majority of them with scrappy play in the lane, fighting for loose balls and finishing after collecting them. Haylee Howard-Radde finished with eight points for Albemarle.

 

Eleri Hayden had eight points for Western while Mady Starsia finished with seven for the Warriors.

 

Albemarle will try and move to 3-0 in the Jefferson District against on Fluvanna County Tuesday while Western squares off with Orange County at home.

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