• Colonial Heights shocks Lady Wave
By David Breidenbach
Jan 19, 2012, 14:45
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Tracy Akers’ return to the Colonials line up Tuesday spurred Mia Heydet and the rest of the team to a 33-30 Central District victory. The win boosts the Colonials to 3-6 Central, 5-9; Petersburg falls to 5-3, 6-6.
“Tracy gives you another ball handler and a shooter out there and that helps Mia. She (Heydet) played a great game; usually it’s Caitlyn Cook’s floor game. She has played a few great games against very good teams, but they have been lost in the results. Tonight she got shellacked when she had the ball, but they didn’t call any of that,” Colonials coach Jim Crinkley said.
Akers, who returned to the lineup for the first time since an ankle sprain just before Christmas, reinvigorated the Colonials. After looking rusty in her first few shot attempts, she hit a long three, was fouled, and converted the four-point play to give the Colonials a lead late in the second quarter that they would maintain throughout the rest of the game.
“Once I realized my shot wasn’t really on, I thought at least I can play some defense and get a bunch of rebounds. They (Petersburg) were defending down low a lot; I know at one time four or five of them were on Alonda (Murray) and I couldn’t get back to help,” Akers said. “I felt that foul knocked me back in a little bit, definitely.”
Meanwhile, Mia Heydet was keeping the Colonials in the game herself. She finished the night with a team-high 10 points, and four assists, and Caitlyn Cook had seven points and three assists. Akers’ scoring line resembled a volleyball player’s line, with six points, eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Murray had seven boards, and a huge assist to Brooke Musselwhite, who netted an easy lay-up to push the lead to 33-30 just before the clock ran out. Musselwhite may have had her best outing of the season, coming up with two big baskets in the all-important fourth quarter.
“I think she (Akers) helps the team out a lot; she is our best player and it gives us a lot more confidence to have her out on the court,” Heydet said. “I look to get assists down low passing to our forwards. If the lane’s open, I am definitely going to drive through to the basket.”
The Colonials went into the fourth quarter leading 22-18 and pushed the lead to eight points early on. Petersburg’s defense forced a number of Colonials turnovers and miscues, but they did not take advantage of the extra possessions at first. During that battle, Heydet managed to get a runner in the lane and a foul shot, but it was Musselwhite’s baskets that solidified the Colonials when Petersburg’s long-range shooters started to connect.
“Right there at the end we had a flurry of shots, but even before that our foul shots didn’t go in. I think when our key players are not operating someone needs to step up, and step up a little earlier. With young people, they think once you’re behind a few points you’re out of the game. But I think we played pretty good defense on them, we forced them to turn the ball over, but we didn’t capitalize on them. Akers made a difference in the game, the way she handles the ball, everything she does, she made a difference,” Petersburg coach Robert Claiborne said.
Last week against Thomas Dale, Petersburg’s three-point shooters connected on four straight three-pointers to make the game a bit more interesting. Tuesday, they came down and hit three straight. Jameka Scott hit a pair of three pointers back-to-back, including one that careened off the glass, and Shundrey Fitzgerald hit the last one that closed the score to within one point, 31-30 with about 15 seconds to play. Fitzgerald had 10 points to lead the Wave, and Scott and Thomas had eight and seven points, respectively. At that point, Heydet was hounded by the Petersburg defenders as she brought the ball up court. She managed to find Murray down low on the right baseline. Murray was immediately put under pressure by two Petersburg defenders, and somehow managed to see Musselwhite standing in the low post on the left side all alone. Somehow Murray’s pass got through the Wave’s waving arms and Musselwhite converted the lay-up for the 33-30 win.
“The last two minutes were hers (Musselwhite’s); she made two buckets, had a steal and a couple rebounds,” Crinkley said. “But that’s the way we play, hard defense, block out on the board, and be patient and work the ball on offense.”
