Charlottesville coach Dee Mitchelson was waiting for this kind of game from her team. The Black Knights were at a crossroads in the fourth quarter with Western Albemarle surging back from a shaky first half. With the game on the line, Monique Perkins and fellow guard Tamara Starchia provided the fourth quarter spark that had been missing in CHS’ previous defeats. Thanks to the transition game in the final minutes of play, the Black Knights walked out of Crozet with its first win over the Warriors since the ’09-’10 season, 42-40.
“We never gave up and this is something that (assistant coach Jim Daly) and I have been preaching — if we ever reach our potential and play 32 minutes of basketball without regrets, we’ll be where we need to be,” Mitchelson said. “We finally did that tonight and so I’m proud and excited for our team.”
While neither team looked their best in the first half, Charlottesville’s defense held Western to just two points in the second quarter, and with London Todd scoring on the run or in the Black Knights halfcourt set, the visitors were able to build up an eight point lead going into halftime.
“In the first two quarters we were executing by the rim and not getting rattled by their 2-2-1 press,” Mitchelson said. “We were also fresh, we weren’t fatigued, but the that changed in the third and fourth.”
Western faced a double-digit deficit early in the third quarter, but when Sydney Fewell and Mady Baker knocked down a trio of 3-pointers between them, all of the sudden it was a 1-point contest.
“That was the bulk of it, wasn’t it? Mady got hot and we did a really good job of finding her and moving the ball around a little more aggressively,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “The first half, I thought the ball stuck too much in one place. I thought once we started moving it around better we got some good looks and fortunately Mady made a bunch of them.”
Baker’s shot fell for the rest of the night. The senior’s long range shooting kept her team within reach until inside the four-minute mark when forward Bridgett Shaffrey gave her team a field goal under neath the basket and the team’s first lead since the first quarter.
With Western’s defense focused heavily on Todd, Perkins, Starchia and Mianna Gaston provided the offense in the final minutes of play for CHS. Back-to-back baskets on the fly from Starchi and then Perkins gave the Black Knights a 3-point margin in their favor.
“We were trying to stay focused at the end,” Perkins said. “Coach told us to make sure we didn’t foul and we tried to be ready to answer (offensively) and make the passes we needed to.”
Western caught right back up when Baker knocked down her fourth 3-pointer of the night moments later to make it a 1-point contest again with 24.9 seconds on the clock.
After both teams traded costly turnovers, Perkins padded her team’s lead by one at the free throw line, but Western still got a chance to try and tie the game. Understandably, the Warriors went to Baker one last time, but this go around the Black Knights defense was there to contest the shot and in the process, preserve the win.
“We had to come together as a team there and know where the players were going to be,” Starchia said. “This week we focused on mental toughness. So it was time to get tough and not panic. In the past when we panic we lose games.”
Perkins finished with a team best 17 points on six field goals and five converted free throws. Todd wound up with 10 points while Strachia finished with eight. Gaston had five points, all in the fourth quarter.
For Western, Baker led all scorers with 19 points fueled by her quartet of threes. Fewell chipped in six points. Shaffrey added four.
Charlottesville (5-4, 1-0 Jefferson District) heads to Fluvanna County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Western (5-9, 1-1) looks to rebound against Louisa County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Monticello.
