CC denied Region A crown

Lady Panther Hailey Holmes muscles the ball away from Colonial Beach’s Billie Gould.

Andre' Jones photo

Charles City’s Lady Panthers sought to continue their phenomenal season by adding a regional tournament championship trophy to the mantle. But it was a more experienced fourth-seeded team that managed to sneak away with the hardware.

The second-seeded Lady Panthers could not stop the onslaught of the inside and outside game plan of Colonial Beach’s Lady Drifters, falling to the designated visitors 59-44 in the Region A, Division 1 championship game Saturday at Surry.

From the opening tip, the Lady Drifters looked to decide the game early, jumping out to a 9-1 lead in the first four minutes of play. The designated host Lady Panthers weathered the storm, as Jessica Hill’s six points at the end of the opening quarter cut the lead to six at 17-11 heading into the second quarter.

The hosts made their move to take over the game. Forward Taylor Bradby converted on a spinning hook shot followed by Adrienne Miles’ put-back off her own miss to trim the lead to two (17-15). That lead would be wiped out at the 5:04 mark as Hill connected on an easy bucket.

But that would be as close as the game would get. The visitors embarked on a 12-2 run, capped off by three-point specialist Karley Inscoe, who drained what would be the third trifecta of the night giving the Lady Drifters a 29-19 lead at the half.

After Miles scored off a miss to begin the second half, Colonial Beach put together another run (8-0) that was capped off again by an Inscoe long distance connection. When the Lady Panthers decided to lock down on Inscoe, she connected with teammate Meghan Seaman, a 6’0” freshman who would drain a free throw line jumper.

The Lady Panther offense sputtered most of the night, thanks to the visitors electing to run a box-and-one defense on all-district first team selection Cheyenne Davis. The move worked as Davis was held to eight points, with five of them coming in the final frame when the game was out of reach.

After the contest, Lady Panther head coach Vashaun Otey said his team wasn’t scared in the spotlight of winning a regional championship.

“They were more excited to be here than nervous,” he said, mentioning that no Charles City Lady Panther team has advanced this far.

“The main thing I told them that if you give them an inch, they [Colonial Beach] would take it,” he continued. “Tonight, we didn’t rebound the ball and they took advantage on second chance points at the basket.”

Despite the Lady Panthers [17-6] falling in the title game, they advance to the state tournament quarterfinals where they will take on the Region B champion East Rockingham Lady Eagles, a team that has lost only once this year. That game is currently scheduled for this Saturday at James Madison University at 1 p.m.

“We are going to work on boxing out,” Otey said. “We will have things corrected by the time we hit the floor again.”

Miles and Hill finished in double figures for the Lady Panthers with 15 and 13, respectively. Davis added eight while Mary Black, Taylor Bradby, and Kayla Otey tossed in two apiece, and both Sara Whitehead and Hailey Holmes chipped in with one.

Colonial Beach [15-7] placed four players in double figures, led by Inscoe’s game-high 18.