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The Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team lost a pair of Valley District home games last week, falling 60-20 to Spotswood last Tuesday before suffering a 55-24 setback against Turner Ashby on Friday.
Against Spotswood, the Wildcats (2-19 overall, 0-7 district) struggled to stop 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 improved to 7-0 in the district and completed a sweep of the season series with RC. The Trailblazers ended the week at 17-4 overall.
Offensively, the Wildcats had trouble against Spotswood’s defensive press, committing 33 turnovers.
“We’ve got to do a better job not collapsing on the middle, especially against teams like that that can make a good pass out of the middle when you crowd them,” added Bellairs.
Emma 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.
Alana Taylor scored nine points for Spotswood, while four Blazers each chipped in five points.
TA 55, RC 24
In their final home game of the season, the Wildcats suffered a 55-24 loss to Valley District rival Turner Ashby on Friday night in Lexington.
It was the eighth consecutive loss for the Wildcats, who had trouble stopping TA’s 6-foot-5-inch forward, Raevin Washington. Washington led all players with 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, scoring 15 points in the first half, and did a good job of finding open teammates for baskets.
TA (17-4, 6-1) jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the Wildcats responded with a 7-0 run to go up 7-5, playing tough defense during that stretch. With Washington scoring inside, the Knights ended the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 13-7 lead.
Other than Clark, RC’s leading scorers were Mulitalo with eight points and Dahl with five. Dahl led the Wildcats with eight rebounds, and Rachel Hines grabbed three boards.
Before the game, the Wildcats honored their two seniors, sisters McKenzie and Rachel Hines. Both guards played well defensively, with Rachel scoring two points and leading the Wildcats with five steals before she injured her shoulder late in the game.
The Hines sisters both played varsity basketball as freshmen before becoming star lacrosse players, and they both signed letters of intent to continue their lacrosse career at the Division I level next year, McKenzie at Radford University and Rachel at Liberty University.
The Wildcats were scheduled to conclude the season at Broadway last night. A story on that game, with a season wrap-up, will be in next week’s newspaper.
