It was about as uncharacteristic of a start as Western Albemarle’s girls have had all year. The Warriors trailed by five at the end of the first and had managed to score just three points against a much-improved Charlottesville team.
“I said we can either start executing or we can go home with a loss,” said Western coach Kris Wright.
The Warriors never found their best stuff against the pestering, ball-pressure oriented Black Knights, but Western executed just enough to grab a 34-28 overtime victory over Charlottesville.
“We survived,” Wright said. “They had us beat but it kind of rattled around and we survived. We’ll take it that way.”
It wasn’t the last step for Western’s pursuit of the regular season Jefferson District crown, but it was a huge one. The Warriors, unbeaten in JD play, now hold a two-game lead on the district.
Charlottesville came out of the gate strong defensively, with Ellie von Storch’s work defensively at the point against Kelsey Swanson disrupting Western’s offensive flow.
“Ellie does a nice job of pressuring the ball and keeping her arms out wide and she’s a little bit taller than Kelsey,” Wright said. “We were having trouble seeing the gaps in there.”
Swanson settled in during the second half though with a couple of pinpoint passes to Raven Ward and Ellen Shaffrey that helped the Warriors built a 21-15 lead during the third quarter. Charlottesville broke back on Western’s 7-0 third quarter run with a 7-0 run of their own to take a 22-21 lead. No Black Knight got into double figures, but Olivia Levine and Sydney Calloway each had eight points and both contributed during the run.
“We are getting better and better out there everyday and even though we took the loss tonight, I’m very proud of our effort,” said Charlottesville coach Deanna Mitchelson.
It was Levine who carried the Black Knights down the stretch and nearly gave CHS a victory with a relentless effort on the boards in the final seconds of regulation. With the game knotted at 26-26 and just seconds left on the clock, Levine came up with a pair of steals that led to CHS chances. The first got the Black Knights two looks from point blank range on Levine rebounds, but neither fell as Western defended well on each attempt. Levine then stole Western’s inbounds with 2.4 seconds left near halfcourt, and nearly knocked home the winner from beyond NBA 3-point range.
“She’s just so active,” Wright said. “People don’t realize this, but she’s kind of the engine for them. When her energy is up and she’s out of foul trouble they play exceptionally well. That’s all a credit to her because she works really hard at it and plays really hard on both ends.”
In overtime, Charlottesville struggled to protect the ball and Western (13-3, 9-0 JD) continually reached the free throw line since they were in the double bonus while CHS was still searching for the bonus. The Warriors buried eight of 11 attempts at the charity stripe in extra time to pull away. Sophomore guard Kathryn Crickenberger came up with a couple of critical plays during overtime and hit two of her four free throws to help secure the win.
“Kathryn was huge,” Wright said. “She’s long and athletic. It was her turn and she stepped up.”
Ellen Shaffrey finished with a big double double, scoring 15 points to go with 12 rebounds. She also had four steals and a pair of blocks. Raven Ward pulled down 10 boards to go with six points, but she had her biggest impact on the game with six blocks and three steals.
