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Monday, Dec. 18 – With a strong finish, the Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team earned its first win of the season, defeating Staunton 39-34 on Monday night in Lexington.
In the nondistrict victory, the first under new head coach Darrell Plogger, the Wildcats (1-6) avenged a 39-30 road loss to Staunton (5-2) in RC’s season opener on Dec. 4.
The Storm led by a small margin for nearly all of the first three quarters of the rematch, but the Wildcats took a 31-28 lead on a 3-pointer from Emma Clark about two minutes into the first quarter, and the Wildcats kept the lead for the rest of the game. RC led 37-31 before Staunton’s Samantha Swift hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 37-34 with just under two minutes left. The Storm missed a pair of 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds in attempts to tie the game, and Clark sealed the win by sinking two free throws with 0.8 seconds left.
Earlier in the game, Staunton led 11-7 after the first quarter and was up 21-17 before the Wildcats cut the lead to 28-26 by the end of the third quarter.
Clark led the Wildcats with 12 points, hitting two 3-pointers, while Abby Bouchard added nine points on three treys and pulled down eight rebounds. Bella Dorey and Ruby Goodhart each chipped in six points, and Goodhart led the Wildcats with 17 rebounds and two blocks. Dorey was pivotal defensively, making six steals, while Desirae Butler came off the bench to make three steals and score two points. Also adding two points each were Sadie Moore and Natalie Samante-Asunción, who had two steals.
Swift paced the Storm with 14 points, hitting two 3-pointers, while Allison Floyd and Avian Field added five points each.
The Wildcats took better care of the ball than in recent games, committing 17 turnovers, while Staunton had 25 turnovers.
RC shot 33.3 percent (15-of-45) from the field and 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from three-point range and overcame 23.5 percent (4-of-17) shooting from the free throw line.
The Wildcats will return to Valley District action when they play host to Harrisonburg on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.
For the full story on this week’s action, with photos from Monday’s game, please see our Dec. 27 newspaper.
