Charles City’s rally comes too late, Lady Patriots emerge with 45-35 win

Charles City's Teonna Bey (left) makes a move to get around the pressuring defense of Patrick Henry's Madison Huckstep.

Robb Johnson photo

One of the biggest adjustments for Charles City’s Lady Panthers is getting up to speed and playing at the varsity level. And while the team is expected to take a few bumps along the way, the learning curve is expected to challenge the youthful Lady Panthers.

A late rally by Charles City wasn’t enough to muster a win as they fell to the visiting Patrick Henry Lady Patriots 45-35 in Saturday night’s affair.

The physical game in nature placed Charles City’s Lady Panthers in immediate foul trouble. Two players were saddled with three fouls in the first half, while four others saw two. The result was Patrick Henry heading to the line 22 times in the first half, converting 14 of them. Meanwhile, Charles City could only muster six attempts, scoring three. That differential factored into the Lady Panthers trailing 26-13 at the break.

It wouldn’t be until the fourth quarter when the Lady Panthers finally sprung to life. Trailing by 20 (38-18), guard Jaela Smith’s opening quarter lay-up started a scoring run. A three by Smith along with a putback by Bryana Lewis took part as they scored 15 of the team’s next 17 points. But the time on the clock would expire as the Lady Patriots would score to provide enough distance on the scoreboard to hold on to the win.

Charles City (1-3) received a game high 18 points from Smith. Lewis finished with seven, the duo of Teonna Bey and Kaylee Stewart finished with four apiece, and McKinzey Meredith chipped in with two.