2A EAST REGION FIRST ROUND
Eagles storm back
Clarke overcomes slow start to beat Bison in 1st round
By KEVIN TRUDGEON
The Winchester Star
BERRYVILLE - After watching her team miss 12 of its first 16 shots and trail by as much as nine points in the first quarter, Regina Downing had a simple message.
"I told them to just weather the storm," said the Clarke County girls' basketball coach about her pep talk on the bench before the start of the second quarter.
"I told them that they're going to make their runs and we're going to make ours, so just settle down, play defense and play with our heads. I told them if we play with our heads and our hearts, everything will take care of itself." Downing's message could not have rung truer over the next three quarters. Relying on a relentless defense that forced 25 turnovers, 18 alone in the first half, Clarke County stormed back to take a four-point lead at halftime and then dominated visiting Buffalo Gap in the third quarter to pull away for a 52-37 win in the first round of the 2A East Region Tournament Tuesday.
The victory advances the Eagles (25-1) to the quarterfinals, where they will host the winner of Windsor- Nottoway on Thursday at 7 p.m.
But for the first eight minutes Tuesday evening, it looked like Clarke County was in danger of seeing its season come to an abrupt end.
The No. 4 seed out of Conference 36, the Bison started fast, using a 10-0 run that featured four layups and a short jumper to build a quick lead.
A 3-pointer from freshman Leah Calhoun stretched the margin to 13-4, and Buffalo Gap finished the quarter holding
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Clarke senior Anna Blue Catlett scored a game-high 21 points in a 52-37 win over Buffalo Gap in the first round of the 2A East Region tournament on Tuesday night.
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Clarke County..... 52
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a 15-9 lead.
The deficit could have been greater for Clarke County if senior Anna Blue Catlett ( game- high 21 points) hadn't scored off a baseline drive just before the buzzer, but that late basket, along with D o w n i ng ' s speech, seemed to give the Eagles a little life heading into the second quar ter.
"Coach just told us to hang in there and weather the storm," Catlett said. "We knew we had to rely on our defense and let that lead to our offense."
Catlett opened the quarter with a turnaround jumper off the block, then followed that up with the first of her four 3pointers from the corner following a Bison turnover.
Fellow senior Allie Hicks (10 points and five rebounds) scored off an offensive rebound, Catlett hit a pair of free throws, and Hicks and junior Hannah Ravenscroft (eight points and five steals) converted back- to- back layups to close the half.
By the time the second quarter buzzer sounded, the Eagles had outscored Buffalo Gap 15- 5 and turned a six- point deficit into a 24-20 lead heading into the locker room.
" I thought they started to hit a few shots, they picked up their defensive pressure, and I didn't feel like we responded real well to that at that point," said Buffalo Gap coach Phillip Morgan.
"We started well, but they started to settle down and their defense really changed the tempo. We backed off a little bit, we weren't getting the same shots and it just kind of turned around on us."
Despite foul trouble that kept leading scorer Sydney Chrane (four points and nine rebounds) on the bench for most of the game, the Eagles had plenty of firepower to pair with stingy defense in the second half.
Catlett hit two more 3-pointers in the third quarter, Hicks powered her way through defenders for a pair of layups, and Ravenscroft faked a Bison defender off her feet and scored a basket in transition as part of a 13-1 run that pushed the lead to 46-31.
A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Buffalo Gap junior Shelby Stenzel ( nine points) cut the deficit to 12 points heading to the fourth quarter, but Clarke County's defense never allowed the Bison to get any closer.
After Buffalo Gap shot 62 percent (8 for 13) in the first half, the Eagles limited the Bison to just 29-percent shooting (6 for 21) in the second half, including a 1for-9 showing in a three-point fourth quart er.
Clarke County bounced back from a rough first half by hitting 10 of 16 (62 percent) from the field in the second half, and held a 33-22 rebounding advantage to go along with 13 steals.
"We hadn't played [in 12 days] so we were rushing a little bit in the beginning. We got caught up playing fast because we had a lot of energy and were just happy to be playing a game," Downing said.
" But our defense is what carried us tonight. Once we got that going and bought into it, things started coming easy to us on the offensive end. I'm proud of how we fought and how we battled tonight."
- Contact Kevin Trudgeon at ktr
udgeon@winchesterstar.com Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports
Clarke County senior Allie Hicks takes a shot over Buffalo Gap's Elizabeth Hanger in the Eagles' 52-37 victory in the first round of the 2A East Region tournament on Tuesday night. Hicks finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
GINGER PERRY/ The Winchester Star
Clarke County senior Sydney Chrane takes a shot in the Eagles' 2A East Region win over Buffalo Gap. Chrane led the Eagles with nine rebounds.
GINGER PERRY/ The Winchester Star
