Lady Panthers early lead, win opportunity fades against King William

Charles City's Amia Brown (right) applies defensive pressure against a King William player.

Andre' Jones photo

Charles City’s Lady Panthers held lightning in a bottle early on in a Jan. 18 clash against the invading King William Lady Cavaliers by jumping out to an early 8-0 lead. But as the saying goes, lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place and the hosts ended up reeling in shock.

The Lady Cavaliers responded with a 19-2 run to close out the first quarter and withstood a mild Charles City second half rally en route to a 72-52 victory.

Out the gate, Lady Panther leading scorer Santaesha Hickman orchestrated the offense. An early lay-in coupled with an assist to teammate Skye Bradby quickly gave the hosts a 4-0 lead. Another easy basket and a pair of free throws by Hickman catapulted Charles City to an 8-0 run, forcing King William to call a timeout.

The brief break results in four different Lady Cavaliers draining the next six baskets to prompt a 13-8 lead. After Veondra Brown’s steal and lay-in for Charles City cut the margin back to three, King William strung together six additional points for a 19-10 lead. That momentum produced a nightmarish second quarter for the Lady Panthers as turnovers by the hosts resulted in continuous balanced scoring for King William and a 34-15 halftime advantage.

As Charles City faced a 27-point deficit midway through the third (47-20), confidence of the younger Lady Panther players began to mature. Freshman guard Skye Bradby would connect with back-to-back corner three-pointers. Hickman added six points to close the quarter with more positive momentum for the Lady Panthers despite being down 54-32.

A Hickman free throw and Veondra Brown stickback reduced King William’s lead to under 20 for the first time since the second quarter (54-35). Brown would follow with an assist to Hickman before the visitors would real off four points to halt the run. The Lady Cavaliers would stretch the lead back out to 26 (72-46) before settling with the aforementioned final score.

After the game, Lady Panthers head coach VaShaun Otey emphasized the collapse at the end of the first quarter and spanning into the second proved to be too much to over.

“We dug a hole to deep to climb out of,” he commented. “The last two minutes of the first quarter and the slump into the second quarter took us out of the game. Had we played the game like we did those first few minutes this would have been a whole different game.”

Otey, however, showed high praise for his team’s second half performance, especially for Bradby, who finished with a career high 18 points, including draining five three-pointers in the second half.

“She shot the ball well tonight and she’s capable of doing that,” Otey said. “She can probably knock that shot down 100 out of 100 times at practice.

“But as the game got better, we started being more aggressive and doing the things right for us to win,” he continued. “At halftime I told them to put everything out there and give it their all. Nobody is going to give us this game and I am proud of them stepping up.

“This is the effort I expect from these girls and with this positive attitude and performance tonight, I can work to get more out of them,” concluded Otey.

Charles City (3-9) received a game-high 23 points from Hickman. Bradby also finished in double figures for Lady Panthers with 18. Brown contributed five, Kailin Holland tossed in four, and Susi Kuhn chipped in with two.

King William’s Mikayla Richardson scored 16 points to lead four players in double figures for the Lady Cavaliers.