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The Parry McCluer High School girls basketball team led from wire-to-wire in claiming a 48-31 victory over Rockbridge County in Lexington last Wednesday.
The Fighting Blues opened the game on an 11-1 scoring run, and – once the Wildcats had started to creep back into the contest – Victoria Hamilton tallied 15 of her gamehigh 18 points after the halftime break as PM collected its sixth straight win against its in-county rival. This season’s round two is set for Saturday at 4 p.m. at PM.
Payton Emore added nine points and six rebounds for the Blues (6-3), while Tatyana Turner and Peira Conner scored six points apiece. Des Butler paced the Wildcats (1-8) with nine points off the bench, and Parker Dameron totaled six points and three blocks.
PM head coach Adam Gilbert said it was the best performance for his team over the past few weeks, especially on the offensive side.
“It was much cleaner than anything we’d played in the last four ball games,” Gilbert said. “The kids were more poised, and we ran some sets, created some good looks. I thought we were much better tonight offensively than we have been.”
Fueled by 3-pointers from Turner and Emore, the Blues jumped out to an 11-1 advantage. They forced seven RC turnovers before the Wildcats finally knocked down their first field goal – a triple from Butler – inside the final minute of the opening period.
It wasn’t the first time this season that the ’Cats have been sluggish coming out of the gates.
“We’ve had slow starts to a bunch of our games, where we haven’t scored many points in the first quarter,” RC head coach Darrell Plogger said. “When we get behind early, we don’t have the kind of firepower right now to get back in those games. We get close, but we just haven’t been able to get over the hump.”
Fol lowing Butler’s 3-pointer, Addisen Roberts converted an old-fashioned three-point play to restore the Blues’ advantage to double digits (14-4) after eight minutes.
Another Butler trey and two hoops from Bella Dorey allowed the Wildcats to stay within striking distance for most of the second quarter. RC cut the lead to seven on multiple occasions, and PM took a 24-15 advantage into halftime.
Butler – one of two freshmen and seven total underclassmen on the ’Cats roster – provided a nice jolt of energy when her team was struggling to put points on the board.
“She’s getting better and better,” Plogger said about Butler. “As a matter of fact, we [the coaching staff] were just talking about how to incorporate her a little bit more into what we’re doing. She came in and got us jumpstarted.”
But Hamilton took over in the second half, scoring the Blues’ first nine points of the third quarter and adding six more markers in the fourth. The versatile 5-foot-9 junior proved to be a headache for the ’Cats’ defense.
“Victoria has the ability to be the nightmare in terms of matchups” for opposing defenses, Gilbert said. “A lot of times, if you put a bigger kid on her, we can take her out on the perimeter, and vice versa. … Overall, Victoria played a good game for us.”
Hamilton then turned provider, dishing out one of her three assists to set up a 3-pointer from Turner with 1:48 to play. That extended PM’s margin to 36-24, and the Wildcats wouldn’t pull within single digits the rest of the way.
Emma Clark contributed five points for RC, while Ruby Goodhart and Sadie Moore collected five rebounds apiece and Abby Bouchard had four assists. Roberts chipped in five markers for the Blues.
Plogger, the former RC boys basketball coach who’s in his first year with the girls’ program, had plenty of praise for the Wildcats’ opponent.
“Give them credit. Coach Gilbert does a great job with them,” Plogger said. “They were prepared; they’re mentally tough, physically tough. I just thought they outworked us in some spots, and outcoached us, too. They just beat us in every phase of the game.”
On the other side, though, Gilbert anticipates that the pieces will start coming together soon for a raw but talented RC squad.
“Rockbridge is much improved,” the PM coach said. “I think they’re going to be a handful the next time we play them, and years down the road. I think Darrell’s got them headed in the right direction, for sure.”
Prior to Saturday’s rematch, both teams will play district games on Friday. PM welcomes in Pioneer rival Highland County, with the varsity game only at 5:30 p.m., while RC will visit Spotswood for a Valley encounter, beginning with the junior varsity game at 5:30. The Wildcats were scheduled to play at Salem last Friday, a game that will be reported on in next week’s newspaper due to the early New Year’s deadline, before playing host to Fort Defiance last night.
