Girls Basketball: Woodgrove Comes Back to Secure Dulles District Co-Championship with Loudoun County, Forces One Game Playoff Today

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun editor

Purcellville (Feb. 11, 2012) - The Woodgrove High School girls basketball team had plenty of excuses to settle for the Dulles District's second seed Friday night as the Wolverines, playing without starting junior point guard Brittany Basinger, faced a double digit deficit late in the third quarter against a Loudoun County team looking to wrap up a 16-0 district season.

To answer a question, however, posed by a basketball official earlier in the year after watching Woodgrove's player propel themselves around the court: They always go hard ... and it was a hard-charging fourth quarter, led by juniors Sarah Hardison and Stephanie Purnell, that brought back Woodgrove to a 51-44 win that left both teams regular-season co-champions.

Woodgrove (15-1, 19-2) and Loudoun County (15-1, 16-6) will meet today at 3 p.m. at Heritage High School in a one-game playoff to decide the Dulles District's top seed. The game has bigger implications for the Raiders than the Wolverines as they want achieve a higher Region II Division 4 seeding in hopes of avoiding a placement on the same side of the bracket of state powerhouse Millbrook, which has won 71 consecutive games. Woodgrove will advance to the Region II Division 3 playoffs.

"It's going to be a dogfight Saturday," said Woodgrove coach Kevin Copley after Friday's win.


Hardison missed her first six shot attempts against the towering Loudoun County line-up but the tough-nosed junior, who is already committed for a college soccer scholarship, kept on firing away and finished with a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds.

It was Hardison's 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter that tied the game at 36-36 and moments later sophomore Linsey Fagan drained a 3-pointer to put the Wolverines up for the first time in the contest, 39-36, with 6:27 to go. Woodgrove would never trail again.

"(Hardison) has really stepped up for us and put the team on her back the last two or three games," said Copley.

Hardison took up much of the slack at point guard with Basinger training this week with the U.S. Under-17 Women's National Soccer Team in Florida. Copley expects her to be back in time for Saturday's playoff.

Woodgrove did not have the best shooting night, going 18 of 60 for 30 percent, but the Wolverines out-hustled the taller Raiders on the boards to the tune of 41-27 and Loudoun County committed twice as many turnovers, 15-7, as Woodgrove. That rebounding and turnover edge allowed Woodgrove to toss up 22 more shots than County, which went 15 of 38 from the field (39 percent).

"They made every pass difficult," said Loudoun County coach Derek Fisher of Woodgrove's aggressive defense.

The momentum of the game swung in the third quarter when the Raiders 6-foot-2 shot-blocking machine, Casey Cummings, was whistled for her fourth foul with four minutes left in the quarter. With Cummings on the bench, a bit of air space was cleared for takeoff inside for the Wolverines.

"She's a force for us, but (officiating) is part of the game and we have to adjust," said Fisher about Cummings who unofficially had nearly 10 blocks in the game to go with eight points and nine rebounds. In fact, part of Woodgrove's rebounding edge were team rebounds earned after Cummings had rejected a ball out of bounds.

"Oh my gosh. They are so big and strong," said Hardison.

The Raiders opened the game on a 9-2 run and it appeared that they were poised to repeat a win similar to their Jan. 6 victory over Woodgrove in Leesburg, 58-39. Maggie Phillips had a hot first half for the Raiders with eight points but she didn't get off a field goal attempt in the second half. Katrina Kirby led County with 10 points.

Woodgrove's defense forced County to settle for shots beyond the 3-point arc in the second half and the Raiders were just 3 of 14 shooting long-range in the game. Raider senior guard Erica Linnemann, who scored 22 in the first meeting, was held to seven points, all in the first half.

As the clocked ticked down Friday, the Wolverines bounced off the bench to celebrated their banner earned. It was a win almost a year to the date when Loudoun County blew Woodgrove off the court, 83-39.

"Last year we got taken out by them so tonight was like redemption for us," said Purnell.

Purnell had a huge basket with 2:58 left after County had cut the lead to 43-42. Coming out of a timeout the Wolverines executed an inbounds play perfectly that resulted in Purnell scoring at the block. Cummings made a nice move in the paint to make it 45-44 with 2:25 left.

Woodgrove freshman guard Brooke Basinger scored only one field goal in the game but it was huge as she scrambled for her own missed and kissed it off the glass to make it 47-44 with 1:48 left. County missed on a 3-point attempt to tie it up and Hardison cradled the rebound.

Basinger showed her poise again with two free throws with 35 seconds left to make it 49-44. County missed two more 3-point attempts in the waning seconds before Purnell scored just before the buzzer for the 51-44 final.

Woodgrove 51, Loudoun County 44
LC  14 12 10   8 - 44
WG   5 13 15 18 - 51

LC: Lapple 1 0-0 3, Linnemann 2 2-4 7, Phillips 4 1-2 9, Kirby 3 4-5 10, Cummings 3 2-3 8, Maxey 2 2-2 7, Vasquez 0 0-0 0, Knox 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 11-6 44.

WG: Tilly 1 2-4 4, Hardison 5 4-4 15, Buxton 1 2-2 4, Lynch 3 1-2 7, Purnell 5 2-2 12, Basinger 1 2-2 4, Lorinchak 0 0-0 0, Fagan 2 0-0 5, Hornyak 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 13-16 51.

Rebounds: LC 27 (Cummings 9, Kirby 6, Lapple 2, Phillips 2, Maxey 2, Linnemann 1, Vasquez 1, team 4); WG 41 (Hardison 9, Lynch 8, Buxton 5, Purnell 5, Tilly 3, Basinger 2, Lorinchak 1, team 8).

Turnovers by Quarter
LC   4  3  4  4  - 15
WG  3  2  2  0 - 7

Shooting: LC 15 of 38 (3 of 14 from 3-pt); WG 18 of 60 (2 of 6).