SR girls upset Harrisonburg, reach Region III, Division 3 final

For the first time since 1993, Staunton River’s girls basketball team will play in a state basketball tournament.

Laquaksha Robinson had 15 points and 12 rebounds and sister Shaniesha Robinson added 14 points and eight boards to lead the Golden Eagles past Harrisonburg 52-48 in the Region III, Division 4 semifinals Friday night at Spotswood High School.

Staunton River will met Turner Ashby tonight at 6 at Northside High School in Roanoke for the region championship.

“This is huge,” Golden Eagles assistant coach David Forbes said. “This is a bunch of kids who refuse to lose.”

Harrisonburg (13-12) led in the third quarter, but Staunton River (21-3) regained the lead heading into the final frame.

Though the Eagles hit just 8 of 16 free throws, they made free throws down the stretch. Kelly Jackson, who scored a game-high 19 points, hit two free throws in the final minute. After Harrisonburg drew within two, Shaniesha Robinson hit two more with 1.7 seconds left to seal the victory.

Forbes said Staunton River will need to play under control tonight if it wants to win the region title.

“We need to control our turnovers against their press,” Forbes said. “They play up and down like we do. If we can hold the ball and make them defend us for 30 seconds at a time, we’ll say in the game.

“And we’ve got to crash the boards, because they make a living on the offensive glass.”

Region III, Division 3 semifinals

Lord Botetourt 45, Brookville 37

At Northside, Brookville went into an untimely third quarter shooting slump and Botetourt hit free throws down the stretch to win.

Katie Deacon and Talisha Watts scored 11 points each to lead the Bees (19-5).

Brookville led 25-22 early in the third quarter, but Botetourt outscored the Bees 12-2 the rest of the period to take control.

“They just made a few more plays than we did,” Brookville coach Warner Dyke said. “We got behind and we had to foul, and they didn’t miss. Twenty of 24 for a high-school team (from the free-throw line), that’s stroking it pretty well.”

Grace Blaylock led the Cavaliers with 18 points. Jade Lewis added 11.

Robert E. Lee 69, Rustburg 51

STUARTS DRAFT — The Red Devils fell behind 7-0 early and could never catch up in Friday night’s Region III, Division 3, semifinal loss to Robert E. Lee.
Lee won the first quarter 19-10 even with its star freshman Angela Mickens on the bench in foul trouble. Fellow freshman Kemani Crawford filled in, scoring nine points in the quarter.

It wasn’t until midway into the opening frame that the Red Devils even registered a point, when Shannon Glass converted a steal into a bucket. Rustburg started the second frame with a short 7-3 run, but Mickens slammed the door shut and swung the momentum back into Lee’s favor with back-to-back breakaway buckets.

“I think our girls fought very hard,” Rustburg coach Kim Trent said. “Unfortunately (Mickens) was able to get the ball on transition and make easy layups. When you give a very good team high-percentage shots your chances of coming out on top diminish.”

Lee unraveled briefly to start the fourth quarter, allowing Rustburg to go on an 8-1 run to close the deficit to five points.

But Daequaa Scott ended the drought with a tough putback and Lee rolled from there on a 15-2 run.

Mickens led Lee with 18 points. Gabrielle Glass paced Rustburg with 14 points.

Boys basketball

Region B, Division 1 semifinals

Altavista 49, Buffalo Gap 44

At Eastern Mennonite University, fifth-seed Altavista stunned top seed Buffalo Gap to advance to the Region B championship game for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.

Mike Poindexter and Jerrell Jordan scored 12 points each, and Kyle Andrews added 11 for the Colonels (14-10), who will meet Riverheads today at 6 p.m. for the region title at EMU.

“It was a very intense game, the way it should be,” Altavista coach Mike Cartolaro said. “Both teams played very hard and left everything on the floor. Huge win.”

Boone Jones led Gap (21-3) with 25 points, 16 coming in the first half. The Colonels settled down defensively in the second half and made Jones, a 6-foot-6 center, work for his points.

“We surrounded him a little better in the second half,” Cartolaro said. “We kind of changed up, played behind him and helped with the guards.”

Altavista hit 6 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter, and Poindexter’s free throws with 17.3 seconds left sealed the victory.

VACA Southern Region semifinals

Dayspring Christian 62, Timberlake Christian 51

At Westover Christian in Danville, Caleb Knautz scored 17 points and Jacob Barnard and Russell Kroeger added 15 each to lead Dayspring into the championship game.

B.J. Conklin led Timberlake (13-13) with 16 points. He also had 12 rebounds, five blocks and four assists.

Joseph Skinner hit four 3-pointers to break Timberlake’s school record. Skinner has 144 career 3s.

Timberlake will play either Pathway Christian or Southwest Virginia Home Schoolers in today’s consolation game at 3:30 p.m. at Westover.

Timberlake will begin state tournament play next Tuesday.