Western Albemarle freshman Ava Ewen had all the answers in the third quarter against Brookville and senior Kate Wallace dropped the hammer on the Bees late.
“Everyone I felt like stepped up today,” Wallace said. “Everyone was just working together.”
That one-two punch of Ewen and Wallace offensively was enough to lift Western to a 49-34 win in Monday night’s Region 3C quarterfinal with the Warriors surging in the fourth quarter to break open a game that was tied at 28-28 going into the fourth.
Western advances to the Region 3C semifinals where they’ll face off against Spotswood Wednesday night barring schedule changes for inclement weather.
The Warriors went on a methodical 12-2 run to open the fourth with Wallace scoring eight of her 12 points in the final frame, part of a 12-point, 10-rebound double double for the senior.
“Kate has been good all year long and it’s not always scoring, she just has been very steady,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “That’s what we’re looking for from seniors, to be steady, to do what we do.”
Wallace’s play was critical, along with Mattie Shearer (five assists, four points), Karina Long and Ellie Smart because Western had to dip a little further than it has recently into its bag of tricks.
“For a really long time we’ve relied on kids to get to those upper class years to perform well,” Wright said. “With limited practice, their institutional knowledge helps, we did some stuff late we haven’t practiced. But they’re able to do it because we build over time.”
That institutional knowledge helped the Warriors cash in on another big effort from Ewen, a fearless shooter who got red hot in the third and kept the Bees from seizing control. She hit two big-time threes to stop Brookville spurts as part of a 16-point effort and showed some critical fearlessness in a big game for a ninth grader.
“Ava is extremely talented and has a really bright future ahead of her,” Wright said. “She came to play. Even though she missed some early, you see some kids do that and go into a turtle shell, there was none of that going on. She was ready for the moment.”
The Warriors also got strong outings from Kayleigh Long who had eight points, five rebounds and four assists and Natalie Smith who pulled down five boards. It was a complete team effort, with contributions from all over the roster and most importantly, perhaps, it kept the Warriors’ season going.
“In this particular year — driveway workouts on zoom, 10 feet apart in November, started for one day and then the next day you’re on pause for a month, come back in January, we’re reverting to stage one, school board is going to have to make a vote on athletics to regional semifinals,” Wright said. “What an amazing amount of resiliency and how rewarding to hang in there and get a chance to keep playing and these kids need it. Not just our kids, but all kids, their body language is different when they’re getting a chance to play.”
Brookville’s Kim Brown led the Bees with 15 points while Liz Pennington notched eight.
Western’s game with Spotswood will determine which squad heads to the region title game and will likely be moved around due to weather.
