It looked like they had it and then suddenly Sade Johnson stole it from them as time expired. After Western Albemarle watched Johnson, a senior guard for the Hornets, miss a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds remaining, the Warriors’ lead seemed safe. But Johnson amazingly found her own rebound and was able to bury a three-point shot to force overtime.
“That was a big time shot,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “That shot is a gray-hair causer for coaches.”
Indeed it was. But after a tightly contested overtime, Wright was able to leave the court with a smile after Western forward Carolyn Schneller sunk a basket underneath the hoop in the closing seconds to give her team a 50-48 road victory.
“It was hard not to feel down after they forced overtime,” Schneller said. “But that’s one thing that we’ve been focusing on, trying to make sure we always stay positive and I think we did that tonight. During that overtime both Coach Wright and (Raven Ward) were really encouraging me out on the floor.”
It was a tightly-contested game from start to finish with the largest margin separating to the two being five points, which came between the third and fourth quarters when, down by one, Western forward Raven Ward scored six straight points to put her team up by five.
But the Hornets made it a one possession game midway through the fourth quarter before tying it up in the closing minutes. The Warriors spent the next minute and a half at the free throw line but were only able to get in front by one point before Kelsey Swanson drew a foul with 15 seconds to play.
“She had missed some free throws and so I called a timeout just to talk to her, and her alone, about those free throws,” Wright said. “I told her that she needed to shoot those free throws like any others but make sure that she does everything you need to do properly. And she did. And it was huge because Sade comes down and hits that 3-pointer. If Kelsey doesn’t make those free throws we lose.”
To lose a game after snatching the momentum in the closing minutes isn’t any kind of fun, but Orange coach Dave Rabe was impressed with the way his team responded from it’s 0-3 start to the year (they won their next five in a row) and thinks the Hornets will rebound quickly.
“Nobody wants to lose like that,” Rabe said. “It’s one of those things where in the locker room you got the sense that every player was telling themselves, ‘I never want to feel this way again.’ So we’ll have to bounce back and make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Sade Johnson led all scorers with 23 points, her second straight game with at least 20 points. Teammate Jasmin Johnson pitched in 11 points and Paige Phillips contributed five points and 10 rebounds.
For Western, four players scored eight or more points including Schneller. Virginia Carew led the Warriors with 10, fueled by a pair of 3-pointers. Swanson finished with nine points. Ellen Shaffrey had 12 rebounds.
Western (5-4, 3-1 Jefferson) will head to Fluvanna on Friday at 6 p.m.
Orange (5-4, 3-2) travels to Charlottesville on Friday at 6 p.m.
