By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
The Washington girls basketball team looked impressive on Friday is it took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter against Coastal Conference foe D.H. Conley, but that strong effort was almost wiped out as the Vikings made a late charge to cut the Pam Pack’s lead to seven with over five minutes left to go in the game.
Fortunately for Washington, veteran leaders Beth Batchelor and Shaquoya May stepped up to sink the Vikings as they led Pack back in the right direction and to a 56-41 victory.
Batchelor scored five of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter while May added four of her 19 points in the final stanza to up Washington’s record to 6-7 (2-4).
“I thought we came out of the gate strong on defense and that really helped us,” Washington coach Allison Jones said. “Then we got into foul trouble and so we had to change our plan for a while. We had Shaquoya on the bench for a while and Rachel (Cantrell) on the bench for a while but we had some people step up and play well.”
Jones also praised the effort of point guard Rakira Ward for keeping the Pack together late in the game.
“Rakira Ward did a good job of running the point for us at that point,” Jones said. “She gathered the team and ran some set plays and made sure that the offense ran through Beth or Shaquoya. Staneisha Griffin also played well and gave us eight points. It always helps when we have several people put points on the board.”
The Pam Pack went into the fourth quarter up 42-27, but the Vikings (5-8, 1-4) rode the back of center Courtney Farmville late in the game to get back in it. Farmville scored six of her eight points in the fourth quarter and helped the team go on a 9-1 run to cut the Pack’s lead to 43-36 with 5:10 left in the game.
Sensing the game was at a turning point, Washington got back on track and responded with a 7-0 run to keep the Vikings at bay.
D.H. Conley 70, Washington 39
The Pam Pack struggled early and never found its rhythm as it fell 70-39 to conference rival D.H. Conley on Friday.
The Vikings jumped out to a 16-1 lead after the first quarter and took a 24-14 lead into halftime.
D.H. Conley (6-6, 4-1) had four players score in double-digits and was led by D.J. Weaver and Adam Vos who each scored a game-high 14 points. Francis Paye and Josh Cox added 10 for Conley.
Nobody on Washington broke the 10-point mark as the Pack was led by Josh O’Neal and Ridge Hodges who each tallied eight. Washington center Brandon Tripp was held scoreless by a tall an talented Conley front court.
“It was just one of those nights where we just didn’t have it offensively. It’s hard to explain what happened,” Washington coach Steve Flowers said. “I do know that we lost our composure early and once you do that you get focused on the wrong stuff.”
Flowers said part of the problem on offense was his team’s inability to get Tripp the ball in the paint.
“We just didn’t get him the ball,” Flowers said. “We told him to flash and we would get him the ball, but we just didn’t do a good job of that and then he got in foul trouble.”
The Pack will have a week to work out the kinks as the team will not be in action again until next Friday when it plays South Central.
Boys game
D.H. Conley 16 18 19 17 — 70
Washington 1 13 7 18 — 39
Vikings (70)
Francis Paye 10, Adam Vos 14, Hunters 6, D.J. Weaver 14, Evans 3, Josh Cox 10, Smith 3, Loyd 1, Evans 4.
Pam Pack (39)
Graham 3, O’Neal 8, Hodges 8, Conner 3, Bell 6, Slade 9, Moore 2.
Girls game
D.H. Conley 7 11 9 14 — 41
Washington 11 17 14 14 — 56
Vikings (41)
Porter 4, Hobgood 5, Mitchell 4, Tischira Carman 10, Gonzalez 3, Farmville 9, Keyes 8.
Pam Pack (56)
Beth Batchelor 21, Griffin 8, Cantrell 4, Ward 5, Shaquoya May 19