Charlottesville girls roll on Senior Night

Charlottesville’s girls basketball team picked a perfect night to put an end to its losing skid and score a season-high point total. The Black Knights celebrated Senior Night with a 55-34 victory over visiting Louisa County on Friday.

Senior forward London Todd finished with 10 points in her final regular-season game in front of the home crowd, while junior Sydney Calloway led all scorers with 17 for CHS (9-10, 4-5), which will wrap up the regular season at Monticello on Tuesday in a rematch of last season’s Jefferson District championship game.

“I knew we had to go hard tonight,” said Todd. “It felt really nice to get a win tonight, I think it gave us a lot of motivation to continue on with our energy.”

CHS coach Dee Mitchelson-Shaver added: “We wanted to know what it felt like to win again, so it just gave us a lot of momentum. It was just a totally different vibe in the locker room, the girls were happy and chatty, and so we’ve just got to come in here on Monday and refocus and prepare for Monticello, because we know it’s going to be a battle to the end… We’ve been trying to get to that [50-point] mark all season, so we finally got that tonight.”

Senior guard Enia McCants got the start for the Black Knights, and the first period was evenly matched as Charlottesville took an 11-7 lead despite Todd picking up two early fouls in the first 6:30 of play. The senior got into the flow in the next quarter on a pretty assist from freshman Kendall Ballard for her first two points, then followed that up with another bucket as part of an 8-0 run. Todd scored six total in the frame, even though she picked up personal foul No. 3 with 2:51 left until the half, but her teammates maintained a 26-15 advantage going into the break.

Ballard scored five of her 13 points in the third quarter as CHS began the stanza on a 13-4 spurt to push the lead to 20 points, 39-19. Calloway added six in the third, and Charlottesville carried the 20-point cushion into the final eight minutes with a 43-23 lead.

“[Calloway] finished great under the basket,” said Mitchelson-Shaver. “She had a nice couple of jumpers too, over at Harrisonburg she had 26 [points], so she must like playing on Friday nights.”

Louisa’s Brianna Whalen scored eight points in the first half, but was held scoreless until the final two minutes and finished with 12 to lead her team. Khadijah Winkey added seven in the losing effort. The Lions will close out their regular season at Fluvanna County on Tuesday evening.

Sophomore guard Tamara Starchia, who missed several games during the losing stretch, scored six of her nine points in the second half for the Black Knights, who held the Lions to single digits in scoring for the first three quarters, and only 11 in the fourth. A Charlottesville win on Tuesday would likely give the Black Knights a No. 3 seed in next week’s district tournament. Monticello has already locked up the No. 2 seed.

Like us on Facebook. Search for Daily Progress PrepsPlus.