Lady Trojans stage late rally, hold off Lady Panthers 40-39

Charles City’s Adrienne Miles tries to maintain her balance and control the ball despite defensive pressure from New Kent’s Brittany LaPrade.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Paige Simpson sank her first and last three-point shot she launched over the Charles City Lady Panther defense. In between, the New Kent guard missed a bunch, but no matter. The final trey sealed a 40-39 non-district basketball victory for the host Lady Trojans.

“She hit a nice three at the end,” said her coach, John Scorsone, who admitted that he opted to bench Simpson during part of the game for taking — and missing — too many threes.

Simpson’s first three helped New Kent open an early 6-0 advantage in the Jan. 23 affair. But trailing 13-7 early in the second quarter, Charles City resorted to the foul line to get back in the game.

The Lady Panthers converted four of eight free throws while New Kent was mired in a three-and-a-half minute scoring drought. Then at the 3:06 mark, Jessica Hill stuck back her own miss under the basket to deadlock the affair at 13-13. Moments later, Adrienne Miles scored off penetration to hand Charles City its first lead.

From there, the teams battled on even terms, tied 19-19 at the half and 29-29 heading into the final quarter. But with just under six minutes to play, the Lady Panthers embarked on a run that appeared to clinch the game.

First, Cheyenne Davis drove into the lane to break a 31-31 tie. Hill then scored at the end of a fast break after a New Kent turnover, and Miles benefited from another Lady Trojan miscue to put her team in front 37-31.

“We were down by six, and that’s scary for us,” said Scorsone, noting his team is not known for late comebacks aimed at salvaging wins.

But Lady Trojan point guard Adrienne Goodlet drove into the paint for a basket and a foul. She completed the three-point play to cut the deficit in half. A Charles City turnover led to Simpson’s lay-in off a Mikayla Scorsone assist to make it 37-36 with 3:15 left.

Charles City came up short on efforts to regain control, missing two shots from the floor and a pair from the foul stripe. With two minutes to play, Lady Trojan Anna Mathis sank the first of two free throws to tie. Then with 1:30 to go, Simpson drilled her deciding three from the top of the key.

Hailey Holmes answered Simpson’s shot, driving into the lane and scoring in traffic with just over a minute on the clock. After a time out, New Kent put the ball in the deep freeze, looking to run out the clock. The ploy worked until an errant pass sailed out of bounds with 21 seconds left.

As the clock ticked down inside of 10 seconds, Davis fired and missed from three-point range. A battle for the rebound, however, resulted in a kicked ball by a New Kent player, retaining possession for Charles City with four ticks left.

Miles’ inbounds pass found Davis open on the baseline. Davis launched a runner, but the ball sailed over the rim. Lady Trojan Brittany LaPrade grabbed the rebound as time expired.

“There was a lot of rushing going on and a little panic,” Charles City coach Vashaun Otey said, recalling his team’s performance in the waning minutes.

“Our shot selection was pretty bad, but shots we normally hit weren’t falling tonight,” he said.

Otey noted a key point in the contest when Davis, who scored a game-high 14 points, took a seat due to foul trouble. Her absence contributed to New Kent’s fourth quarter run.

“She’s pretty much key to what we want to do,” he said. “When she got her third foul, that kind of slowed down our momentum.”

Scorsone, meanwhile, brought up two players from JV to fill gaps in his roster caused by illness.

“Not having Karley [Allen] hurt us on the boards, but Caitlin McClain came up from JV and did a good job rebounding,” he said.

“We were mentally tired, but we did a much better job of getting after the ball in the second half. It was a good win,” he added.

Goodlet and Simpson led New Kent (3-12) with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Mathis ended with eight while Scorsone totaled five, McClain contributed four, and Kirsten Gipson chipped in two.

Hill and Miles both scored nine for Charles City (10-4). Holmes tossed in six and Myonka Boyd added one.