THE SPORTS DESK
Prep Girls Basketball: Cold Eagles still prevail over Wildcats
COLONIAL FORGE PUTS MANY
MOUNTAIN VIEW TURNOVERS
TO GOOD USE IN VICTORY
BY JUSTIN RICE
THE FREE LANCE–STAR
There’s probably not a girls basketball coach in the Commonwealth District who wouldn’t have tabbed Colonial Forge as the district’s preseason favorite. The question, then, is how will the other eight teams catch the Eagles off guard and pull off a surprise?
For Mountain View, the answer Wednesday was to slow down the game dramatically and hope to win a low-scoring affair.
But even on a night when Colonial Forge was shooting probably as poorly as it ever will, even that wasn’t enough.
The Eagles were held to a season-low 42 points—none from the usually-sharp shooting Kenya Holland—but they converted enough turnovers into layups to hold off Mountain View, 42–28.
“We just have nights we can’t shoot,” said Holland, who was 0 for 8 from the floor but did contribute with good defense and strong rebounding. “We’ve got to make something else happen—get it inside, or get it in transition.”
Mountain View set the tone it was seeking on the very first possession of the game. The Wildcats controlled the opening tip and milked nearly a minute off the clock before finally missing a 3-pointer.
“We didn’t want to get into any transition running game,” Mountain View coach Ben Sargent said. “We slowed it down and kept them from running too much, and we played pretty good halfcourt defense. I was happy to give up just 42 points to a team that has a bunch of good shooters.”
Even the Eagles’ best shooters were quiet Wednesday.
They endured a two-minute drought at the end of the first quarter but built a 25–12 lead at the half, mostly on the strength of turnovers forced and the resulting layups.
The shooting got worse in the second half.
Forge’s lead grew to 29–12 with five minutes left in the third on a 3-pointer by Nichole Collins. But Mountain View responded with a 9–0 run during which the Eagles were 0 for 7 from the field and missed a pair of free throws.
“We’ve had bad shooting nights, but we’ve never had a night where everyone is having a bad night,” Colonial Forge coach Michelle Darley said. “But they’re going to happen.
“We’ve got to work through that. Part of that was [Mountain View] slowing the game down. We just weren’t in any kind of rhythm.”
Collins helped steady the Eagles.
Her drive and layup with 3:54 to play put Colonial Forge up 34–25, and she made a nice steal two minutes later and dished to Nia Washington on the break for an easy layup.
Collins finished with a game-high 15 points and had seven steals.
“She played really good defense,” said Eagles center Jahla Osborne, who added 11 points, “and that really led to a lot of transition opportunities for us.”
It’s what the Eagles had to do, Darley said, on a night when the shots just weren’t falling: play defense and turn that into offense.
“That’s what we kept emphasizing,” she said. “Play good defense and have that create points.”
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M. View 5 7 9 7 — 28
Colonial Forge 12 13 5 12 — 42
Scoring
Mountain View (6–4, 2–3): Alexis Davis 10, Bianca Dittman 1, Jessi Dixon 2, Taylor Fernow 2, Chelsea Keyser 9, Erica McCarter 2, Jasmin Nguyen 0, Rachel Stutler 2. Totals: 9 8–14 28.
Colonial Forge (7–2, 6–0): Zhane Barnes 4, Kara Campbell 1, Kenya Holland 0, Nichole Collins 15, Taylor Deskins 0, Jahla Osborne 11, Bri Sullivan 6, Nia Washington 5. Totals: 17 7–15 42.
Three-point goals: Mountain View 2 (C. Keyser 2). Colonial Forge 1 (N. Collins)
Justin Rice: 540/368-5045
jrice@freelancestar.com
