The Shadow
They nearly erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit but when they final whistle blew it was the Rockbridge girls earning a hard-fought 53-49 non-district basketball win over the Lady Mountaineers Monday night in Valley Ridge.
In a game that featured 62 foul shots, 57 turnovers and 50 fouls, the foul line proved to be key. The Lady Mountaineers connected on just 14-of-38 attempts from the charity stripe.
“I’ll take an effort like this every night but we have got to make our foul shots,” said Alleghany coach Danny Keene. “Those are the easy baskets and we did not take advantage of that tonight.”
Allisha Ayers’ free throw gave Alleghany a brief 1-0 lead to open the game but the Lady Wildcats rebounded with an 8-0 run to take an 8-1 lead with 5:46 left in the opening quarter.
Mariana Keener knocked down a three from the wing to cut the Mountaineers’ deficit to four (8-4). Esther Allman’s three-ball made the score 13-9 but Rockbridge’s Sadie Hamric countered with a triple of her own to make the score 16-9.
The Wildcats held a 17-11 advantage after one quarter.
Ayers’ offensive rebound and stickback made the score 19-15 with 6:03 remaining in the half and Kristen Rose’s layup cut Alleghany’s deficit to one (21-20) with 1:22 left in the second quarter.
Rockbridge led 25-21 with 31 second to play but a Mindy Gillispie basket made it 25-23 with 20 seconds left. Paige Irvine then recorded a steal and dished to Keener for an easy layup with two seconds remaining in the half to knot the score at 25 at intermission.
The Mountaineers connected on just 7-of-20 free throw attempts in the first half and 4-of-16 in the second quarter, while committing 15 turnovers.
Keener opened the third quarter with a three from the left wing to give Alleghany a 28-25 lead – their first lead since 30 seconds into the first quarter.
Rockbrigde’s Bryce Peebles then converted a three-point play to knot the score at 28 and that started an 11-0 run by Rockbridge that put the Wildcats on top 36-28 with 4:04 left in the third.
Allman knocked down a three from the wing to cut the Mounties’ deficit to five (36-31) but Rockbridge pushed their lead back to 10 (41-31) following a Georgia Logan bucket and a three-point play from Kearra Thompson.
The Mountaineers trailed 44-35 heading into the fourth quarter and trailed 46-36 after Rockbridge’s Lauren Prasnicki dished to Gabby Harlow with 5:49 left to play.
Keener dished to Allman for a corner trey to make the score 46-39 and Allman followed with a dish to Gillispie to make it 46-41.
Rockbridge’s Kelsee Grant made a layup to increase the Wildcats’ lead to 48-41. A Keener free throw coupled with two free throws by Allman made the score 48-44 before Hamric hit a pair at the line to increase the Wildcats’ lead to 50-44.
Rockbridge led 51-45 before Kirsten Burton knocked down a baseline jumper with 37 seconds left to bring Alleghany to within four (51-47).
A Rose dish to Irvine for a perimeter jumper helped Alleghany close the gap to two (51-49) but Rockbridge’s Hamric stroked a pair of free throws with a second remaining to put the game out of reach as the Wilcats held on for the 53-49 win.
“Win or lose, I’ll take that effort night in and night out,” said Keene. “These girls played scrappy tonight and clawed their way back into it when they could have very easily just threw in the towel. That’s all I can ask for. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow and continue to get better.”
Allman led Alleghany with a team-high 13 points, including three treys, while Keener finished in double figures with 11 points and seven boards. Ayers added seven points and nine rebounds.
Hamric led Rockbridge with 13 points, including three three-pointers. Peebles and Thompson finished with 11 points each with Peebles grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds.
Alleghany (1-5) will be back in action Wednesday at Glenvar. Action starts at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity game.
