ELKTON — The Madison County girls basketball team’s season came to an end Wednesday night with a 49-19 loss to East Rockingham in the quarterfinals of the Region B tournament.
The Mountaineers were outmatched from the beginning and struggled on offense throughout the game. East Rockingham started the matchup by reeling off 15 unanswered points. Faced with aggressive full-court pressure, Madison struggled with turnovers and didn’t put points on the board until two minutes remained in the quarter.
The Mountaineers continued to struggle in the second period, turning it over 11 times while scoring just one bucket as the Eagles continued to roll. It was a bleak outlook at the half, with Madison trailing 28-4.
“We knew the pressure was coming. We didn’t handle it well in the first half. We missed a lot of shots we should have made, especially off of stick-backs,” Madison coach Katherine Johnson said. “We didn’t come out the way we wanted to come out and dug ourselves a hole.”
It only took East Rockingham three minutes after the half to extend its lead to 30 points. East Rockingham coach Paul Comer retired his starters with four minutes remaining in third and reserves finished the contest for the Eagles. Comer credits strong defensive play for the victory.
“Our defensive pressure has been good for a couple of weeks now,” Comer said. “We’ve been focusing on rebounds, and I think we were able to get out in transition and score some easy buckets. Really, it was just sharp on the defensive end for us.”
East Rockingham’s Jessica Lam led all scorers with 14 points. Madison Comer added 11, while Meghan Nicholson chipped in with nine.
Timberly Deane and Abby Erb each had four points for Madison.
The Mountaineers managed to put together some plays in second half, but the damage was already done. East Rockingham will face Stonewall Jackson, a team the Eagles defeated twice during the regular season, in the Region B semifinals.
“We’re going to have defend, box out, and shoot the ball pretty well. We’re going to have get out on the perimeter and cover their shooters,” Comer said.
Despite ending the season on a low note, Johnson is happy with the progress her team made throughout the season and is ready for next winter.
“We’re very much improved over last year. We’ve lost three or four games within single digits. Our kids play for a period of time, then have those lapses,” Johnson said. “We only have one senior, so [for next season] we are looking for big things.”
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