Charles City seniors spark 37-34 comeback win over New Kent

New Kent's Payton Slater looks for a passing outlet in the face of pressure from Charles City's Hailey Holmes.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Up by seven entering the fourth quarter of a low scoring contest marred by turnovers, fouls, and poor shooting, New Kent’s host Lady Trojans appeared on the verge of reversing a 0-7 start. Buoyed by senior leadership, however, Charles City’s Lady Panthers played the role of spoiler down the stretch.

Seniors Adrienne Miles and Hailey Holmes combined for their team’s final nine points along with two critical steals, lifting the Lady Panthers to Friday night’s 37-34 basketball victory. They also led a defense that shut out New Kent from the floor in the fourth quarter.

“Key players stepped up when we needed them,” said Charles City head coach VaShaun Otey.

“[New Kent] did a good job moving the ball and making us work on the defensive end,” he said. “We had spread our 2-3 zone out so our guards could contest on the outside. We did a good job playing solid defense without fouling and did a good job defensively toward the end.”

New Kent seemed in command entering the final period. Lady Trojan Kelsey Yates buried back-to-back threes as the third quarter wound down, stretching a one-point New Kent lead to seven at 33-26. The advantage was the largest either team could manage during the affair.

Utilizing a crisp passing attack, the Lady Trojans spread the floor on offense in the fourth, looking for open spots on the perimeter against the Charles City zone. The hosts got off nine shots, but none found the bottom of the net. And they never secured an offensive rebound for second chance opportunities.

“We didn’t score, and when we can’t score, we can’t win,” said Lady Trojan head coach Vann Baker.

“We were running our offense better, but at key moments we weren’t patient enough to feed it inside,” she said. “We should have looked a little more to get it in.”

Veondra Brown’s only basket of the night triggered Charles City’s game-winning comeback early in the fourth. Miles took over from there, rebounding her miss for a follow-up basket. Then after a Tessa Gray free throw accounted for New Kent’s only point of the period, Miles scored twice off the dribble to overtake the hosts at 34-all.

Fouled in the act of shooting with 2:36 to go, Miles sank the second of two free throws to put her team in front to stay. With just under a minute to play, Holmes’ steal and lay-in created the final cushion. The pair then blunted New Kent bids to force overtime with a steal apiece in the waning seconds before Holmes added the exclamation point, blocking Yates’ desperation half-court heave at the buzzer.

“We weren’t hitting field goals tonight,” said Otey, whose team improved to 5-2. “We had to fight to win this one, and we pulled through.”

Miles poured in a game-high 20 points while Holmes finished with 11. Sydney Richard and Brown contributed four and two, respectively.

New Kent, entering the holiday break at 0-8, got 14 points from Yates, a freshman, while Brynne Jones tossed in eight. Brittany LaPrade scored five followed by three each from Sarah Major and Payton Slater and Gray’s one.

“This was a hard loss and the girls are devastated, but they gave it 100 percent,” Baker said.

“We haven’t given up,” she said. “We’ve still got opportunities ahead of us, and we’ve still got shots at some teams in our conference so that’s what we’ll focus on. We’re young, and the key is to get through this year and then work on an off-season program to prepare for next year.”