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Tuesday, Jan. 31 – The Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team suffered a 60-20 home loss to Valley District leader Spotswood on Tuesday night in Lexington.
It was the seventh consecutive loss for the Wildcats (2-18 overall, 0-6 district), who struggled to stop Spotswood forward Zoli Khalil, who led all scorers with 24 points, sinking two 3-pointers.
Khalil, a Division I signee and the Class 3 state player of the year as a junior last year, scored 14 points in the first half before RC center Maddie Dahl had a little more success against her in the second half, with Khalil getting into foul trouble.
With the win, Spotswood (16-4, 7-0) completed a sweep of the regular-season series with RC.
Offensively, the Wildcats had trouble against Spotswood’s defensive press, committing 33 turnovers.
With Khalil pacing the visitors, the Trailblazers jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Emma Clark hit a 3-pointer to get the Wildcats on the scoreboard with about two minutes left in the first quarter.
From late in the first quarter to several minutes into the second quarter, Spotswood went on a 10-0 run to extend its lead to 21-5, and the Blazers led 31-13 at halftime.
Spotswood continued to pull away in the second half. With Spotswood leading by 30 points for nearly the entire fourth quarter, the teams played almost the whole quarter with a running clock.
Clark led the Wildcats with seven points and had two steals, while Lola Mulitalo added five points, four rebounds, a block and a steal. Jaci Moore chipped in four points, while Dahl and Abby Bouchard each grabbed five rebounds, Defensively, Rachel Hines made three steals, and Parker Dameron had two blocks.
The Wildcats will have their final home game of the season on Friday when they play host to Turner Ashby, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m. Before the game, the Wildcats will honor their two seniors, McKenzie and Rachel Hines.
For the full story and photos from this week’s action, please see our Feb. 8 newspaper. Coverage of last week’s games will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
