RoundThreeToBlues PM Girls Avenge Earlier Setbacks to Wildcats
An old sports adage postulates that it is hard to beat the same team three times in a season. That certainly proved to be true on Friday, Jan. 23, when the girls basketball teams from Parry McCluer and Rockbridge County met for the third time this year in the final game of the annual Rock the Ribbon Roundball Shootout in Lexington.
That third time proved to be a charm for the Fighting Blues, as PM used some clutch free throw shooting and a third quarter run to top the Wildcats 39-31, and avenge two earlier losses to the Wildcats, improving to 5-11 on the season. RC fell to 7-9 overall. PM’s victory also snapped a four-game losing streak to the Wildcats, who swept the season series last year.
“For us, that would have been a game we lost earlier in the season,” said PM head coach Adam Gilbert. “But we stepped up and saw some good things from everybody. [We got] some timely buckets, played good defense and hit free throws. We showed some determination and grit.”
On the other side, RC head coach Darrell Plogger said, “They got on us early. They deserved to win the game. They were just better [that night]. Our recipe for losing all year has been getting in foul trouble and turnovers. It just bit us again.”
Both RC and PM were scheduled to play other teams on Saturday, Jan. 24, but Saturday’s games were canceled due to the winter storm. The late night game between the Wildcats and Blues was added to Friday’s schedule on Wednesday, Jan. 22, just two days before the event began.
With both teams struggling to put the ball in the basket, the first quarter ended with RC holding a 5-4 advantage. The Blues took a 6-5 lead when Josie Martinez scored on a backdoor pass from Kat Zissi at the 7:44 mark of the second period, and PM never trailed again.
The Blues closed the first half with a 3-pointer from Kayleigh Ramsey, and Caroline Watts hit a pair of free throws with 1:07 remaining in the second quarter to give PM a 16-11 advantage at intermission. That run carried over into the third period as the Blues took advantage of three RC turnovers to start the second half. Zissi turned one of those into a long jump shot, and when Ramsey converted an oldfashioned three-point play, PM held its largest lead of the night, 23-11, with 4:43 left in the third stanza.
“We got stops defensively,” said Gilbert. “We did the little things. Defensively, we were in position; we boxed out; and on offense we ran an offense and were rewarded. We played good fundamental basketball in that stretch.”
Foul trouble plagued the Wildcats for the entire game. Lola Mulitalo, RC’s leading scorer and rebounder, went to the bench in the first half with two fouls, and that’s when the Blues began their run.
“That definitely hurt us,” said Plogger. “Whenever she’s not in the lineup, we are just so small.”
The Wildcats clawed their way back into the game as Bella Dorey hit a pair of free throws and converted a fastbreak layup with two seconds remaining in the period to cut their deficit to 29-24. Then two quick baskets, one from Dorey and a steal and layup from Mulitalo, cut PM’s lead to 29-28 with 5:02 remaining in the contest.
“Bella’s always been our spark plug,” praised Plogger. “She played well. If we can get our guard play consistent and cut our turnovers down, we’re going to be OK.”
Then the ‘Cats went cold, failing to score again until only 1:31 was left as Natalie Samante grabbed an offensive rebound and hit the stickback to trim the PM advantage to 3430. That was the last field goal of the game for the hosts, however, and the Blues put the game away at the free throw line.
The foul line was the big advantage for the Blues in this game. PM failed to hit a shot from the field in both the first and fourth quarters, but PM hit 20 of 31 (64.5 percent) free throw attempts in the contest, including 10 of 12 in the final period to put the game away. Emory Slagle, who led the Blues with 12 points, connected on eight of 10 from the charity stripe in the final eight minutes, while Zissi made both of her attempts as PM held off the Wildcats.
“We were able to get to the free throw line and hit some free throws,” Gilbert said. “I saw some things out of Emory and Kat that I hadn’t seen out of them in terms of their aggressiveness on offense.”
“If you look back at every game we’ve lost this year, other than a couple of times when we’ve gotten blown out, that’s been the exact same thing,” Plogger said. “We just put teams on the free throw line too much.”
Zissi finished the game with seven points, while Ramsey added eight.
The Wildcats were paced by Dorey, who tossed in 14 points in the game. Samante added six points, while Mulitalo tallied only five.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well, but the Wildcats suffered two long scoring droughts that hindered their cause. RC, which shot just 23.8 percent (10-of-42) from the floor, including a lowly 1-of-18 performance from three-point range, went scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the second half. Then the Wildcats went cold for almost as long after cutting the lead to one point.
“We don’t shoot the ball well from three,” said Plogger. “We just settled for shots. They went under all the screens and said you are going to have to shoot jump shots to beat us. That affected us.”
“This is a chance to start fresh,” the RC coach added. “If we can just take care of our business down the stretch, we’ve got a good chance to make the region [tournament].”
For the Blues, Gilbert said, “This helps validate what we’re doing, that day in and day out grind of practice and preparation.”
Gilbert noted the progression of his team in the season series with RC. Earlier this season, the Wildcats had cruised to a 50-30 win over PM on Dec. 29 in Lexington before fending off a PM comeback to win 40-36 on Jan.
3 at PM. “This is the visual that you can see what we’re doing is working,” said Gilbert. “We just have to keep our noses down and keep working and getting better.”
The Blues will return to Pioneer District action when they play at Narrows tonight, Wednesday, at 6 p.m. On Thursday, they’ll play host to Bath County at 7 p.m., following the varsity boys’ game between the two schools. PM will then play host to Highland County on Monday at 5:30 p.m., preceding the 7 p.m. varsity boys’ game between the two schools. Before the girls’ game, the Blues will honor their two seniors, Ramsey and Katie Tomlin. PM was scheduled to play host to Craig County last Thursday, but that game was postponed following the previous weekend’s winter storm and had not been rescheduled, as of press time.
The Wildcats were slated to start the week with home games against two Shenandoah District rivals, against Waynesboro on Monday before facing Buffalo Gap last night. RC will continue district action at Stuarts Draft on Thursday at 6 p.m. before playing at Wilson Memorial on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Wildcats will then play host to Riverheads on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
