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Led by Payton Emore’s game-high 21 points, the Parry McCluer High School girls basketball team defeated the Gretna Hawks 57-33 at the 10th annual Rock the Ribbon Basketball Shootout on Saturday at Rockbridge County High School.
It was the ninth consecutive win for the Fighting Blues (13-3), who shot well early on and raced to a 27-11 lead by the end of the first quarter and led by double digits for the rest of the game, taking a 34-17 lead into halftime.
The Hawks (6-11) came out with a full-court press, but the Blues were well-equipped to handle the pressure.
“We actually fully anticipated that,” said PM head coach Adam Gilbert. “That’s just how they play. But we had a couple of days to prepare. We had some outside folks come in and give us a pretty decent look at their 1-2-1-1 press, and I truly think that helped our girls today coming into it. I thought we held it well.
On defense, the Blues forced Gretna into taking contested jump shots and did an excellent job getting out in transition after missed shots.
“We always want to run any time we play anybody,” said Gilbert. “But I think it was a lack of [Gretna] getting back on defense. I thought we rebounded well, and we were looking to run. We had opportunities, and we took advantage of them.”
The Blues’ defense remained strong in the second quarter, but the offense struggled to hit open looks and could not capitalize on a few easy chances.
“There were times in the second quarter where we went stagnant offensively,” said Gilbert. “We didn’t attack the basket the way we did early on.”
For the game, the Blues shot 49 percent from the field while holding Gretna to 26.6 percent shooting.
Payton Emore and Natalie Mohler combined for nearly half of the Blues’ offense, with Mohler scored 10 points, while Victoria Hamilton added seven points and Kayleigh Ramsey chipped in six.
Shakira Jones led the Hawks with 20 points and was 7-of- 8 from the free throw line.
Emore and Jones were named to the all-tournament team.
Looking ahead to the final stretch before the postseason, Gilbert said, “We’ve just got to keep getting better in all areas. Defensively, we’ve been in pretty good positions for the most part, but we’ve still got to be better on the help side at times.”
