Knights reach semis

NEWPORT NEWS — According to Charlottesville girls basketball coach Harry Terrell, a confident team usually plays better than one that doesn’t.

Well, the Black Knights certainly did not lack confidence on Friday night, as they outplayed, outhustled and outrebounded Grafton en route to a 59-48 win in the Group AA, Division 4 quarterfinals at Christopher Newport University’s Freeman Center.

Charlottesville advances to the state semifinals on Tuesday at VCU’s Siegel Center. They will face the winner of today’s Courtland-Loudoun County game at 7 p.m.

“Playing confident is a big deal. When you play with confidence, things have a tendency to work out a little smoother for you,” Terrell said. “When you go out there not sure of yourself, more than likely you’re going to make a lot of turnovers and you’re not going to play very good defense.”

Charlottesville, which advanced to the state quarterfinals last year and was the state runner-up in 2007, was aggressive from the start. The Black Knights dominated the boards, especially on the offensive end and were efficient in limiting the Clippers to one shot on most possessions.

However, Grafton — making its first appearance in the state tournament — jumped out to a 7-2 lead before Charlottesville’s offense came to life.

The Black Knights ended the first quarter with a 10-0 spurt, aided by a pair of wide open 3-pointers from guard Shawntae Payne. The senior leader picked up where she left off in the second quarter, scoring two straight baskets as Charlottesville built a 16-11 advantage. Payne finished with a team-high 16 points.

But Grafton began chipping away at the lead by the end of the quarter. The Region I champions got some help from leading scorer Jasmine Williams-Hayes, who had five points during that stretch to trim the lead to five by halftime.

Although Williams-Hayes led all scorers with 30 points, Charlottesville kept her from getting in a groove early, and shut down the Clippers’ second-leading scorer, Sydney Beasley.

“We game-planned for them, we just couldn’t box out. They killed us on the boards. Our Achilles heel all season was the glass and it came out big time tonight,” Grafton coach Chris Harper said. “They took Sydney completely out of the game. She only had one point, and she averaged 12 [in the postseason].”

The Black Knights continued to build on their lead in the second half. After scoring on eight consecutive possessions, Charlottesville led by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter before Grafton cut into the lead.

The Clippers got a trio of 3-pointers (two from Williams-Hayes and one from Jessica Ponce) to cut the lead to 10 with five minutes to play. Ponce made a nifty move to the basket on the team’s next possession to pull Grafton within eight. But the Clippers could not get any closer as they were forced to foul down the stretch.

Charlottesville wasn’t perfect from the free-throw line, but went 7 for 13 in the final 2:43 to hang on for the win.

When Payne wasn’t taking the shot herself, she often found open teammates — she finished with seven assists to go along with four steals.

She also had help from Tanyqua Williams, who finished with nine points and a team-high 14 rebounds, as well as Ellie Von Storch and Olivia Levine, who have come alive in the postseason.

Von Storch scored all 10 of her points in the second half, while Levine also added 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter. London Todd came off the bench to contribute six points and seven rebounds.

Terrell was pleased with his team’s balance.

“From our support players we’ve had good [production] and that’s a sign of improvement,” Terrell said. “You want them to get better each game and play with a little bit more confidence. And I think they showed that tonight.”