Charles City Lady Panthers play well against hot-streaking Essex before bowing in 1A Regional Quarterfinals

For one half, Charles City’s Lady Panthers battled toe-to-toe with the hottest team in Region 1A, the Essex Lady Trojans, who had won 10 consecutive contests. And while the visiting Lady Panthers fought until the final buzzer, it was the size of the hosting Lady Trojans who triumphed.

Essex emerged with a 64-32 victory over Charles City in the Region 1A Quarterfinals, bringing the Lady Panthers season to an end with a record of 12-10.

Charles City set the tone early in the contest, as Kaylee Stewart and Aalaya King dropped back-to-back three-pointers to provide the visitors a quick 6-0 run. After a three-pointer was dropped by Essex’s Amani Brown, Lady Panther Jaela Smith connected with a floater in the lane. Smith followed that up with a wing trifecta, providing the visitors their largest lead of the game (11-3) and forcing Essex to call a timeout. The Lady Trojans began aggressively attacking the basket, drawing fouls on the visitors and climbing back into the contest. A lay-up by Lady Panther Madison Bradby sealed the end of the first quarter, with Charles City leading 15-13.

In the second quarter, the Lady Panthers were only able to sink one basket from the field, but that was due to Essex committing several fouls. Charles City drained seven of 11 free throws in the frame, but Essex began utilizing their duo of Morgan Self and Makirya Williams on the offensive end. The result saw the Lady Trojans overtake the visitors as they headed into the halftime break with a 27-24 lead.

In the third quarter, Self, who was selected as the Northern Neck District’s Player of the Year, began to live of that moniker against the smaller Lady Panthers. Self scored 10 points in the third quarter while Essex held Charles City to four, as Essex took a 45-28 lead into the final quarter. From there, Essex would capture the victory as the expiring clock concluded the Lady Panthers’ season.

After the contest, Charles City Lady Panthers Head Coach Casey Crawley spoke about how proud he was of his team and their performance.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of these group of girls,” he commented. “The scoreboard doesn’t really tell the story of the game, and they executed the game plan.

“Tonight, you could see we really missed Sha’Ryan Paige,” Crawley continued, pointing to his starting center who was out due to illness. “She makes a difference for us, but these young ladies filled in and played their part. It will only go up from this point moving forward.”

Crawley expressed his optimism because all eight players of Charles City’s roster are underclassmen.

“We just have to continue to work hard in the offseason and gel,” the head coach concluded.

Smith’s 17 points led Charles City in the scoring column. King dropped in eight, Stewart tossed in three, and the duo of Bradby and McKinzey Meredith chipped in with two apiece.