Knights topple Eagles

By Jeff Nations - jnations@nvdaily.com

CUMBERLAND -- Amy Hagerdon tried to block it out.

It's just hard, seeing a teammate sprawled on the hardcourt, clutching at a knee already showing the telltale signs of a serious injury. It gets to you; it has to get to you. That's not just your teammates hurting; that's your friend.

Hagerdon did her best to look away and keep playing for Clarke County's girls basketball team in Friday night's Region B, Division 2 tournament semifinal against Buckingham County at Cumberland High School.

She focused on what needed to be done as teammate Brittany Yates was carried off the floor late in the third quarter, but it was just hard.

Ten minutes later, Hagerdon and the Eagles were reeling when the same thing happened again as Andrea Gaither landed awkwardly and her right knee buckled awkwardly from the stress. She also had to be carried from the court after a lengthy delay and was headed to the hospital on Friday night.

Whether that double-shock contributed to Clarke County's 46-42 loss is debatable, but it certainly didn't help matters against the Knights. Yates, providing energetic minutes off the bench, angled with Buckingham's Celia Dentz on a rebound attempt with 58 seconds left in the third quarter and the Eagles leading by a point. Both players were injured on the play. Hentz got up; Yates couldn't. After a 15-minute delay, she was carried off the court and eventually loaded onto a stretcher with an apparent right knee injury.

Hagerdon passed on that ready-made excuse, though.

"Once you lose a teammate, you should want to come out harder," Hagerdon said. "In that circumstance, we just didn't."

A truly dreadful shooting performance ended the Eagles' season as much as any other factor on Friday, as Clarke County hit 16-of-83 field goal attempts (19.3 percent) and sank only 10-of-26 free throw tries.

"It comes down to making shots," Eagles coach Tim Lawrence said. "We had our opportunities. We had numerous open shots, we had numerous layups. We just couldn't knock them down."

Initially, Clarke County (12-12) seemed to rally for its fallen teammate. The Eagles stretched their lead to 37-33 on Hagerdon's bucket in the paint with 6:13 to play. But the Knights, who struggled mightily the entire evening against the Eagle's pressure defense, suddenly found a bit of spark on offense. Keona White's consecutive offensive putbacks keyed a pivotal 10-1 run capped by Shamika Woodson's crushing 3-pointer with 2:31 to play.

"We count on our guards to hit shots," Buckingham coach Ethan Abruzzo said.

The Eagles, trailing 43-38 after Woodson's trey, answered with Logan Johnson's baseline drive to trim the deficit to three. Then what had become a bit of a role reversal in the fourth quarter stung the Eagles once more when Buckingham's Shanice Miles converted a layup off a steal. It was one of 10 fourth-quarter turnovers for Clarke County, which had only 18 to that point and finished the game forcing 32 Knights' turnovers.

Chelsea Nelson's pair of made free throws inched the Eagles back to within three (45-42) with 1:14 to play. But missed opportunities -- free throws, jumpers, layups, putbacks -- continued to haunt Clarke County before Miles' free throw finished off the Eagles with four seconds to play.

Miles finished with a game-high 22 points to lead Buckingham (14-7), which will face George Mason in today's Region B, Division 2 championship game at Eastern Mennonite University. Game time is 6:30 pm.

Woodson added 12 points and Marci Christian pulled down 10 rebounds for the Knights, who also didn't shoot particularly well (31.4 percent).

Johnson was the only Clarke player to score in double-digits with 10 points. Gaither added eight points and Jessica Denkins had nine rebounds for the Eagles.

Although Lawrence was happy with his team's effort, he said the Knights were the team that deserved to move on.

"They did a great job," Lawrence said. "They made more of their opportunities than we did."