Visiting Eagles regroup to turn back host Rams

View larger image Rachel Sefton View larger image Brittany Teasley

By Tommy Keeler Jr. - tkeeler@nvdaily.com

STRASBURG -- Clarke County and Strasburg were both desperately searching for a win as they took the floor Wednesday night for their Bull Run District girls basketball matchup.

The Eagles used a strong third quarter, led by freshman Sydney Chrane, to take a double-digit lead. Then after a furious Strasburg rally, the Eagles scored the final 10 points of the game to pull out a 55-48 victory.

"I just told the girls in the locker room, 'Anytime you can come to Strasburg and pull out a win, it's a good night,'" Clarke County coach Tim Lawrence said. "You know their kids are always going to play hard, and it's going to be a battle. Their kids showed a lot of character in coming back.

"But, I was proud of my kids. They had every reason to drop their heads and give up. And they responded and made some big plays down the stretch."

The Eagles (3-10, 3-3 Bull Run) seemed to have the game firmly in control with a 41-29 lead with less than six minutes remaining. Strasburg's Katlyn Ayers hit two free throws to cut the lead to 41-31 with 5:30 left. Two more free throws by Corissa Alsberry with 4:59 left cut the lead to eight.

It also gave the Rams (5-8, 2-4) a chance to set up their full-court press, and for the first time all night something clicked for Strasburg. Within a 58-second span, the Rams caused four consecutive turnovers off their press, and scored layups to tie the game at 48-all. Ayers, who had 20 points, had three of the steals and hit three layups during the run.

"It's just one of those things that sometimes happens," Strasburg coach Joel Morgan said of the run. "Things just start to go your way. Everybody just starts flying around to the ball. Our confidence was soaring there, and I know it was because we hit all those layups, and we usually miss a lot of layups.

"It sure was fun to see."

The teams went back and forth until a jumper by Brandy Clem, a free throw by Ayers and a basket by Alsberry helped give the Rams a 48-45 edge with 1:39 remaining.

On the next possession, Clarke County's Brittany Teasley drew Ayers' fifth foul, which once again changed the momentum of the game. Teasley made a free throw and freshman Anna Blue Catlett converted a conventional three-point play to push the Eagles back in front 49-48.

With their starting point guard out, the Rams turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions. The last of the turnovers was a steal and layup by Rachel Sefton for a 51-48 lead with 46 seconds left. Catlett missed two free throws with 21 seconds left, but Clarke County's Isabella Eyles grabbed the rebound and scored to give the Eagles all the cushion they would need.

"It's so exciting," Chrane said. "We didn't get down on ourselves. We stayed up and we played hard all the way through."

The Eagles wouldn't have had their lead if it wasn't for the play of Chrane. The center scored four points in the first 3:30 of the game, but picked up her second foul with 4:46 left in the first quarter and sat on the bench for the rest of the half.

When she came back in to start the third quarter, she made up for it by scoring 12 of her team-high 20 points in the quarter.

"Once I got back in, I just wanted to play hard and do what I could to help the team," Chrane said. "My teammates did a good job feeding me the ball. I couldn't have done it without all of them."

Clem added 11 points for the Rams. Morgan said he hopes the fourth-quarter surge his team had can carry over and help get the team some more wins.

"We've got to have more consistent scoring and hopefully we'll get there," Morgan said. "We fought back hard to get back in the game after being down by 12 and took a three-point lead. So we can feel good about that."

Catlett added 11 points for the Eagles. Lawrence said the win was just what his team needed.

"We've been building towards this," he said. "We've had some solid practices and just haven't gotten the wins. They've continued to work hard and we finally got the outcome we've been looking for."