By Richard Carrier
Contributing Writer

The girls basketball squad at Powhatan High School hosted Goochland High School Jan. 25, and played the first half against the winless Lady Bulldogs “like we were walking in quicksand. We wanted to move, but our feet wouldn‘t move,” Head Coach Paulette Bowman said.

The Lady Indians managed only seven points in the first quarter and, amazingly, scored only five in the second. Fortunately for Powhatan, Goochland matched the Indians production to tie at 13. “It seemed very hard to get motivated,” Coach Bowman said of her charges’ eventual 39-29 win.

The second half was a different story. “We came out with more energy and just started playing basketball in the second half,” Coach Bowman said. The Lady Indians matched their first half point total in the third quarter, but the Lady Bulldogs were not ready to throw in the towel.

The Powhatan girls used a more aggressive defense and “we started to knock down some jumpers,” Coach Bowman said as her Indians put 14 points in the book while their more aggressive defense held Goochland to six. The win put the Lady Indians above the 500 mark at 7 -6 for the season.

Powhatan was led by Hannah Livermon with 15 points, followed by Hana Davis with 10. Davis pulled down nine rebounds and Livermon stole four times. Freshman point guard Marisha Berry also had four steals and handed out five assists.

The Lady Indians continued their slow starting pattern against a visiting Southampton team last Wednesday evening. Powhatan was down 9-6 at the end of the first quarter and couldn’t find the hole in the basket until the 4:35 mark of the second, when they closed to 10-8 on Maitlin Ware’s two foul shots.

Again, as in the Goochland game, the PHS girls changed the entire outcome by ramping up their defense. The Lady Indians simply swarmed all over Southampton at their end of the court. Hannah Livermon took an assist from Marisha Berry to tie at 10, Hana Davis finally got untracked with a smooth jumper and Livermon went baseline and then coast-to-coast to close the half at 16-10 PHS.
Powhatan continued to pressure Southampton with their blanketing man-to-man and opened the third quarter with a 10-0 run. Davis scored on a put-back, Livermon on a run-out, Jessie Harris on a put-back, Livermon fed Berry for two and then added two free throws at 26-10. Ware continued the Indians’ domination of the boards with an offensive rebound and free throws to end the third quarter at 28-13 PHS.

The Lady Indians scored the first two baskets of the final quarter on Livermon’s pull-up jumper and Davis’ layup off of a slick pass from Harris. Southampton closed to 33-17 before Livermon answered on an assist from Ware.

With 3:12 left, Mildred Washington’s offensive rebound stick-back ran the score to 37-21.

Davis made one free throw, scored on a neat reverse layup and Berry went baseline for the final score.

Livermon and Davis led the scoring with 14 and 12 points.