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The Parry McCluer High School girls basketball team led wire-to-wire in claiming a 47-24 victory over Rockbridge County in Buena Vista on Saturday afternoon, bouncing back from a humbling loss to Eastern Montgomery Friday night.
Victoria Hamilton tallied 19 points and eight rebounds and Anna Claytor added 16 points to propel the Fighting Blues (9-2) to a season sweep of the Wildcats (111). Parker Dameron paced RC with nine points, while McKenzie Hines tallied eight markers for the ‘Cats, and Maddie Dahl pulled down 10 rebounds.
In the first meeting between the two schools in Lexington on Dec. 22, the Blues used a big second-half run to turn an 18-17 halftime lead into a 36-27 victory.
But Saturday’s rematch was a more one-sided affair. Fueled by a big early burst from Hamilton, who scored PM’s first six points of the game, the Blues started the day with a 9-2 spurt. And after PM ran off nine straight points early in the second period to stretch the lead to 18-4, the Wildcats wouldn’t trim the margin below double digits the rest of the way.
“Victoria was able to get us a nice little lead there in the first quarter, a little separation,” PM head coach Adam Gilbert said. “And then our defensive pressure, I thought, got to them a little bit, especially in the half-court, creating some turnovers. That was the difference this time.”
The turnover story was a key to the contest. RC struggled to take care of the basketball all game long, committing 30 miscues to the Blues’ 17. While PM’s pressure defense certainly affected the Wildcats, there were also a number of sloppy passes and other unforced errors.
After a close contest against the Blues at home just two weeks earlier, RC head coach Andrew Bellairs thought his team might have been a little too pumped up for the return match.
“I think it’s really hard sometimes when you have a bunch of energy for a game like this, to calm down and make the smart decisions,” he said. “We forced a lot of passes that weren’t really there, or we had an easier pass that we could have made to hit a girl who was open.”
And the ’Cats simply had no answer for Hamilton. While the 5-foot-8-inch sophomore has already made an impact on the PM program – she was a key reserve on last year’s squad that advanced to the Class 1 state semifinals – Saturday might have been the most complete game that she’s played for the Blues.
After attacking the basket for her early points, Hamilton stretched the defense further by knocking down a trio of 3-pointers. Any hopes of an RC comeback in the second half – the Blues led 22-9 at the break – were seemingly dashed by her personal eightpoint scoring run that included a pair of treys.
“She was aggressive, and she took what was there,” Gilbert said of Hamilton. “She finished around the rim, and then she stepped out and hit long-range shots.
“She has that ability,” the PM coach added. “To this point, we’ve seen it in spurts – but not strung together for an entire ballgame. If she can do that going forward, that’s a nice addition to what we have already.”
The play of Dameron – also a 5-foot-8-inch sophomore – was certainly a bright spot for the Wildcats. She scored seven RC points in a row in the third quarter, finishing 4-of-6 from the field and also totaling four blocks and three rebounds.
Dameron posted a 14-point, 15-rebound double-double in Friday’s 39-33 loss to Harrisonburg, and that momentum clearly carried over into Saturday’s matchup with PM.
“She’s tough as nails, and for a girl her size, she can be so physical sometimes,” Bellairs said of Dameron. “We’re trying to take advantage of that a little more. She’s working hard to try and get better.”
Natalie Mohler chipped in five points and two assists for the Blues. Payton Emore notched four assists and six steals, and Claytor had five steals and three helpers. Rachel Hines tallied eight steals and a pair of assists for RC.
The loss was the 10th straight for the Wildcats. While RC does a lot of things right, especially on the defensive end, the Wildcats simply must play a cleaner offensive game to compete with the better teams on their schedule.
“The energy’s always there, which I love. The defense is always there,” Bellairs said. “We’ve just got to limit the little mistakes, and we cannot turn the ball over that much.”
Meanwhile, after suffering a 55-30 setback at Pioneer District rival Eastern Montgomery on Friday night, the Blues quickly righted the ship to get back in the win column.
“It’s a big bounce-back for us,” Gilbert said. “They exerted a lot of energy [Friday] night against a good team. We were able to come back home and regroup [after] a short turnaround.”
