There were two major psychological factors at work for Charlottesville’s girls basketball team late in the game as the Black Knights tried to scratch and claw their way to win over Millbrook in a do-or-die Region 4A North tournament quarterfinal.
For one, no matter how things are going for Alaijah Ragland, the sophomore has a shooter’s mentality and she always wants the ball.
“I even called for it, I told her to pass me the ball,” Ragland said.
Secondly, senior Kendall Ballard is one of the area’s most fierce competitors and hates losing more than anything.
“Yeah, losing is not on my agenda,” Ballard said.
Those two factors fell into perfect alignment as Ragland, who’d struggled to find her stride on offense much of the game, buried a 3-pointer with under three seconds to play that put Charlottesville up by two. Then Ballard smacked away a long pass by Millbrook near halfcourt, preserving the 48-46 win and allowing Charlottesville to advance to the region semifinals.
Ragland’s bucket was the game’s biggest as the Black Knights had nipped and tucked at the Pioneers to hang in the game, but they were down by a point with 17 seconds left. Ragland caught the ball outside the arc on an inbounds pass just seconds after a costly Millbrook turnover on an outlet pass attempt that followed a CHS miss in the lane. She buried the shot.
“I saw her put the shot up and I was standing under the basket and thought I better get this rebound, I better get this rebound,” Ballard said. “Seeing that go in was the best feeling ever. I knew we had it at that point, it didn’t matter how much time they put back on the clock.”
On the ensuing inbounds, Charlottesville coach Jim Daly actually considered calling a timeout when the teams lined up, but then he recognized immediately the kind of play Millbrook was going to run. More importantly though, he saw who was guarding the top target for the inbounds pass.
“I figured they were going for the home run to midcourt and then the shooter play,” Daly said. “But then I was like ‘nope’ because I knew Kendall was matched up with her. I turned and said to (assistant coach Dee Mitchelson) ‘she’s going to tip it away.’ With her out there, what would be a 50-50 ball just isn’t a 50-50 ball. She just gets there.”
Ballard swatted it away and Charlottesville celebrates the hard fought win. Ballard carried the offensive load as the bulk of the roster struggled against a Millbrook team that created some matchup problems for the Black Knights despite playing a ton of underclassmen. Ballard finished with 23 points, including going 7-for-11 at the free throw line. Ragland finished with eight points while Bri Jordan and Zanequa Thomas each had six points.
The Black Knights had to battle back from a 10-point halftime deficit and overcame Millbrook freshman Haile McDonald’s 18 points and Conference 21 player of the year Lauren Reed’s 15 points to pull of that feat.
Charlottesville will face William Fleming in the Region 4A North semifinals Wednesday night.
