Sports / The Northern Virginia Daily/nvdaily.com
Mountaineers top Eagles in quarters
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By Dennis Atwood - sports@nvdaily.com
BERRYVILLE -- In the last night of high school basketball at the Clarke County High School gym, the Eagles girls basketball team didn't go out with a win.
The fourth-seeded Eagles came up short to fifth-seeded Madison County, 36-32, in a Bull Run District tournament quarterfinal matchup Thursday evening. The Eagles beat the Mountaineers in the two regular season meetings.
The Eagles had trouble getting the ball inside against the Mountaineers quick-moving 2-3 zone, making eight buckets in the paint during the game. Clarke County's attempts to counter with 3-pointers failed as it went 0-for-13 from beyond the arc.
The Eagles also struggled from the free-throw line as they went 6-for-15.
"Clarke's big, so we actually worked hard in practice yesterday on fronting their post players whenever we could, to make it a little difficult to get a ball inside," Mountaineers coach Katherine Johnson said.
"It's a real credit to Madison's defense," Eagles coach Tim Lawrence said. "We had a lot of success last time we played those guys, running our high-low game and they just did a wonderful job [tonight] denying passes into the interior. Almost all the offense we were able to get was out on the perimeter.
"They shut us down on the offensive glass and beat us to a lot of loose balls. They just out-played us tonight, and that's the thing about tournament basketball. If you get out-played, normally you're gonna be disappointed in the end."
Mountaineers' sophomore guard Chandler Gentry (10 points and game-high five steals) netted the only 3-pointer of the contest, nailing a trey from the left corner with 3:12 remaining on the game clock, to give Madison County a 31-27 lead.
After the Eagles' Anna Blue Catlett, and the Mountaineers' Abby Erb exchanged 1-for-2 trips to the foul line, senior Brittany Teasley (nine points) banked in a six-foot runner in the key and junior forward Mollie Schoeb made a layup for yet another tie, 32-32, with 30 seconds remaining in the game.
As Madison County (10-13, 7-8) advanced the ball toward mid-court, Schoeb committed an unfortunate touch foul of Renee Lucas. With the Mountaineers in the double bonus, Lucas (game-high 11 points) made both of the freebies, to put the Mountaineers up 34-32, with 22 seconds left.
After Catlett (nine points) missed a 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining, Gentry was fouled and sank both free throws.
"[The fourth quarter] was really intense," Gentry said. "I knew that I had to make my shots, because if they had made theirs, we could lose.
"It feels good to keep the season going, because we lost to [Clarke County] twice and now we beat them when it mattered."
Prior to that timely 4-for-4 proficiency, the Mountaineers had gone a dismal 9-for-21 at the free-throw line.
The Eagles' (9-14, 8-7) last shot in their current school gym was a desperation 3-pointer by Becky Smith, that didn't find the rim. Freshman Sydney Chrane contributed nine points and seven rebounds to the Eagles' cause.
"They had a really good 2-3 zone so we were struggling to attack them and score," Teasley said. "We were trying to penetrate, but it just wasn't working, our shots weren't falling."
The Mountaineers advance to a semifinal game on Feb. 15, against either George Mason or Rappahannock County.
In all likelihood, the Eagles season is over. Clarke County would need a lot of help from other teams to qualify for the Region B tournament.
Clarke County made a remarkable recovery from a season-opening eight-game losing streak, and were 7-3 in their last 10 games of the regular season.
"I'm proud of my team in terms of the season as a whole," Lawrence said. "We started the year off by struggling early on. We were inexperienced, had a lot of injuries and the kids [faced] a tremendous amount of adversity. I was really proud of how they responded to that.
"A lot of teams, when they struggle, would have pointed fingers at one another and kind of fragmented. This group just got closer and closer as the season went on, and we really made some nice strides. Yeah, we were disappointed at how it turned out, but there were some real positive strides. The kids began to understand what it really takes to be successful."
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Clarke County's Brittany Teasley and Madison County's Alexis Smith collide as Teasley drives to the basket during Thursday's game. Dennis Grundman/Daily
Clarke County girls basketball coach Tim Lawrence instructs his team against Madison County during Thursday's Bull Run District tournament quarterfinal game in Berryville. Dennis Grundman/Daily
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