Shots fail to drop, Lady Trojans denied first win

Lady Trojan Tessa Gray gets position on West Point's Brooke South for a first quarter shot attempt.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Opportunity knocked for New Kent’s Lady Trojans. At stake — their first basketball win of the season at the expense of West Point’s visiting Pointers. But in a close contest, shots have to fall in order to prevail, and for the Lady Trojans, the rims were not kind.

After moving ahead to stay in the game’s early going Monday night, the Pointers turned back every Lady Trojan rally to escape with a 41-36 triumph and remain unbeaten at 3-0. New Kent fell to 0-3.

“We came close to beating Jamestown and close to beating this team. We’ve just got to make our shots,” said Lady Trojan head coach Vann Baker.

For the game, the hosts converted just 12 shots from the floor. That included two field goals on 15 attempts with the game on the line in the final five minutes.

At the outset, New Kent seemed in command. Field goals from Payton Slater and Sarah Major staked the hosts to a 4-0 lead. And after West Point cracked the scoring column, Major scored off a Tessa Gray assist for a 6-2 advantage.

But scoring woes plagued the hosts thereafter. West Point closed the opening quarter on an 8-1 run and never trailed again.

A Brittany LaPrade trey pulled New Kent within three (17-14) at halftime. Then when Slater sank the second of two free throws at the 3:39 mark of quarter three, the hosts were within striking distance at 22-20.

But West Point scored the next six points, creating a comfortable cushion that held up until Slater drained both free throws in a double bonus situation with 5:13 to play. New Kent closed the gap to 33-30, but West Point quickly bumped the lead back to six.

Major sank one of two free throws to make it a 39-36 contest with 24.2 seconds left. The hosts, however, could not draw closer despite the Pointers coming up empty on a pair of double bonuses at the foul stripe down the stretch. New Kent, meanwhile, missed three shots from the floor in the final seconds.

LaPrade’s 12 points topped New Kent. Slater finished with eight while Major and Gray scored five apiece and Brynne Jones and Kelsey Yates each tossed in three. West Point received 13 points from Brooke South and 10 from Taty Gresham.

“We’ll just have to take it one step at a time,” said Baker, pointing to her team’s varsity inexperience. “It’s hard to jump in there when they’re as young as they are, but I see improvement every game.

“It will be difficult,” she said, “but as long as we can keep the girls’ heads in the game and continue to grow and learn, in the future we’ll have a much stronger program.”