With twenty seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Blacksburg Bruins led the Pulaski County Lady Cougars. A three-pointer to open the second quarter put Blacksburg up 21-13 and the Bruin faithful began to celebrate.
Then Pulaski County woke up.
The Lady Cougars applied pressure defensively and made better shots. They moved the ball well and forced Blacksburg turnovers. A twelve-point run that lasted until around the 1:45 mark of the second quarter found the Lady Cougars up 27-21 and they never looked back. Blacksburg fought back, but at halftime the Lady Cougars led 31-25 despite several players taking a break on the bench due to foul trouble.
“We need to be more consistent,” Lady Cougar Head Coach Scott Ratcliff said. “When our girls play the way I know they can, we’re a pretty good basketball team. We just need to be more intense and focused. We preach it to them every day. This game should have been nowhere near this close, but we just weren’t very focused.”
The second half was back and forth at first. The Bruins moved within seven points, 32-39, with 4:33 remaining in the third, but the Lady Cougars went on a 10-point run to extend their lead to 50-33 right after the start of the fourth quarter. The Bruins hit three free-throws, but Pulaski County answered with eight points again. That final quick run seemed to drain the life out of the Bruins with just over three minutes remaining in the game. The two teams swapped baskets and the Lady Cougars added a few extra for the final score of 67-43 to earn the win, moving them to 10-3 on the season.
Hannah Keefer had a big night, scoring a team and game high 22 points. Paige Huff showed up and added 15 points. Morgan Vest was the third Lady Cougar in double digits with 11 points. Keslyn Secrist added nine points. Jaden Lawson, despite finding herself in foul trouble, joined Kenzlee Jones with four points each. Destiny Duncan added the final two points.
Bryn Ferguson scored 14 for the Bruins. Gabby Brooks added nine points in the loss. The Bruins are now 5-6 overall.
The JV Lady Cougars also added another mark in the win column. Their dominating 50-9 performance moves them to 10-0 on the season. Blacksburg was held to just three points in the first quarter, none in the second, two in the third, and four in the fourth.
Every player played and nine players scored. Emma Ritter was the leading scorer with 12 points. Sophia Hanson scored 10. Caroline Bishop added eight points. Taylor Goble scored six. Eighth grader Palyn Sweet added five points. Ellie MacDonald scored four points. Brooke MIllirons and eighth grader Lylah Minnick added two points each. Victoria Hale scored the final point for the Lady Cougars.
“One of these days the switch is going to flip for these girls,” Coach Ratcliff said. “We can’t come out slow and we can’t lose focus. We need to be aggressive … I’m talking about downright ruthless sometimes. We’ve got to want to win so bad that we’re willing to give it everything for the few minutes we’re in the game. You can rest when you come to the bench, but on the floor you’ve got to go a hundred miles an hour. That’s the kind of effort we want to see and we haven’t seen it for a full game yet. We can’t do this halfway stuff. You’ve got teams out there saying that if they can only beat one team, they want it to be Pulaski County. That should hit home. They should take that a little personal. We need to get a little bit of a chip back on our shoulders and a little more grit in our guts.”
The JV squad will hit the road Monday, January 9, for a makeup game at Floyd County. Tuesday, January 10, the teams will head to Roanoke to face off with the Cave Spring Knights, who are currently 9-2 with wins over William Byrd (49-26 and 67-41), Lord Botetourt (66-61), Blacksburg (54-45), Christiansburg (60-47), EC Glass (71-52), Floyd County (60-48), and Staunton River (63-36). Friday they defeated the 8-3 Salem Spartans 57-37. Their losses came against Lord Botetourt (45-52) and Patrick Henry (39-53).