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Struggling to find offensive rhythm, the Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team suffered a pair of Valley District games last week, falling 64-20 at Turner Ashby last Tuesday before losing 50-24 at home against Broadway.
Against Turner Ashby, the Wildcats (2-14 overall, 0-4 district) made a couple of small changes to the offense. “We were trying to play through Maddie [Dahl] in the middle a little bit more,” said RC head coach Andrew Bellairs. “We threw some lazy passes to her.”
Dahl, a six-footer who plays the forward and center positions for the Wildcats, was matched up against Raevin Washington, TA’s 6-foot-5-inch forward. “When we’re throwing wild passes to her, that’s not fair to Maddie,” said Bellairs. “We just didn’t get in a good flow in our offense because of that.” The RC coach added that the Wildcats “were a little late on help-side defense.”
The Knights, who improved to 12-3 overall and 3-0 in the district, benefited from 30 RC turnovers. “Turnovers aren’t the end of the world, but turnovers that lead to baskets are the bane of our existence,” said Bellairs. “That’s what we have to prevent.”
Brynne Gerber led TA with 14 points while Washington added 13. Chipping in eight points each for the Knights were Elizabeth and Rowen Smith.
Halina Homiak paced the Wildcats with four points and dished out two assists. Scoring three points each for RC were Abby Bouchard, Emma Clark, McKenzie Hines and Parker Dameron. Dahl led the Wildcats with four assists while grabbing three rebounds and blocking one shot.
On a bright note, Bellairs was proud of his team’s effort later in the game. “That’s kind of the first time I saw us get punched and try to fight back a little bit, but we definitely need some new offense, and that kind of was the key to that game,” he said.
BHS 50, RC 24
The Wildcats continued to have offensive trouble in their 50-24 home loss to Broadway on Friday night in Lexington.
RC fell behind early, with Rachel Hines opening the Wildcats’ scoring with only 3:37 left in the first quarter. Bellairs said that a key focus for his team coming into the matchup with Broadway was help-side defense. But after some miscommunications on defense, the Wildcats found themselves behind 12-4 at the end of the first quarter.
Defense continued to be a problem during the second quarter, but the Wildcats rallied to finish the half with a 7-0 run to cut the Gobblers’ lead to 18-11. RC freshman forward Lola Mulitalo scored four points during that run.
Broadway went on a quick 10-0 run at the start of the third quarter and built a scoring margin that they would maintain for the rest of the game.
“That’s where I feel like we really gave up a lot of easy baskets for them,” said Bellairs. The Wildcats began to battle back late in the third with a pair of back-to-back three pointers to cut the lead to 32-17. The Wildcats shot 3-of-13 from three-point range in the game, and the third quarter ended with the Wildcats down 40-19.
RC continued to have scoring trouble in the fourth quarter, as Broadway finished comfortably ahead.
The Wildcats struggled to take care of the ball, committing 34 turnovers. “Just because we play fast doesn’t mean we have to force the issue and dribble right away,” said Bellairs. “We’ve got to look for our shot first.”
Mulitalo led the Wildcats with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and grabbed four rebounds and two steals. Rachel Hines contributed eight points, five rebounds and five steals. Clark added three points and two steals. Dahl was held scoreless, but she led RC with seven rebounds and had three assists and three steals.
Broadway’s Wren Wheeler led all scorers with 20 points, scoring 13 in the second half, while Lily Gatesman added eight points and Lindsey Wimer chipped in seven.
The Wildcats were slated to play host to Harrisonburg last night and will travel to nondistrict rival Fort Defiance on Thursday, starting with junior varsity action at 6 p.m. In a varsity game on Saturday, the Wildcats are scheduled to play host to Salem at 2:30 p.m. in the ninth annual Rock the Ribbon Roundball Shootout. The Wildcats will return to district play home against Spotswood on Tuesday, starting with JV action at 5:30 p.m.
