By Jim McConnell
Sports Editor

Blessed Sacrament Huguenot’s girls basketball game against Steward last Thursday was a microcosm of the Knights’ season to date.

BSH started slowly, leading the host Saints by just three points after the first quarter, but dominated the remainder of the contest and rolled to a 46-24 Virginia Commonwealth Conference victory.

It was the Knights’ sixth win in their last seven games. After an 0-3 start that included lopsided losses to Southampton Academy (50-27) and Amelia Academy (70-31), BSH heads into tomorrow’s home game against Tidewater Academy with a 6-4 record and the confidence that things are coming together nicely under first-year coach Sally Lewis.

“We had a lot of injuries in the beginning of the season, but we have a great team,” said BSH junior point guard Geena Landon, who had nine points and seven assists against Steward. “When we play together, no team can beat us.”

Katie Clarke’s return to the court certainly helped facilitate the Knights’ improved chemistry. The versatile junior missed the first few games as she recovered from a bout with mononucleosis, but her near-quadruple-double stat line from Thursday’s game – 14 points, 11 rebounds, nine steals and seven assists—suggests she’s back to 100 percent.

“We work really well together,” Landon said, noting that she and Clarke have been teammates at BSH since they were in eighth grade.

Lewis chalked up her team’s turnaround both to Clarke’s return and the improved play of three other girls – senior Corrine Birriel, junior Taylor Thompson and sophomore Kimberly Robben – who have had to step up and fill larger roles on this year’s squad than in the past.

Birriel, perhaps the Knights’ most active perimeter defender, notched six steals and added seven points against Steward.

Thompson scored six points and provided physical interior defense that made it difficult for the Saints to do much in the paint.

And Robben, who is listed at just 5-4 on the BSH roster, pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds to go along with her eight points.

Together, the trio accounted for nearly 50 percent of the Knights’ scoring – a ratio that Lewis believes is vital for the team’s continued progress.

“The girls are meshing together well,” she said. “Some of our new starters are starting to play with more confidence. It’s good for us to have more than two people scoring.”

Both teams struggled to settle into their offenses in the opening quarter of Thursday’s game, which was dominated by careless turnovers and ended with BSH clinging to a 11-8 lead.

But Clarke scored two quick baskets that sparked an 8-0 run for the visitors. BSH held Steward scoreless in the quarter until Morgan Schroder’s stick-back with 2:32 remaining and took a 21-10 advantage into halftime.

The Knights’ stifling defense continued in the second half. After Haley Cummings scored on Steward’s initial possession, the Saints didn’t produce another point until the final minute of the third period. By that time, Landon had added four points and Clarke three to give BSH a 15-point lead.

“We always defend well. That’s basically a given in every game,” Lewis said.

With only eight minutes left to make up its double-digit deficit, Steward abandoned the 2-3 zone defense it had employed through the first three quarters in favor of an aggressive man-to-man.

Landon’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of wide-open driving lanes that had previously been clogged by Steward defenders.

After the Knights missed a pair of layups and Lewis took a 30-second timeout early in the final period, BSH put on a clinic in half-court motion offense and quickly put the game out of reach.
Clarke had two assists to Robben and a third to Landon for layups. Landon buried a long 3-pointer, then hit Robben and Thompson for layups in a 13-4 run that pushed the Knights’ lead to 42-18.

“Once they went man-to-man, it was layup city all day long,” Landon said with a smile. “It was just screens and layups. I loved it.”

While BSH nearly matched its offensive output from the middle two quarters in the final eight minutes, Lewis acknowledged she would’ve preferred a more deliberate pace to protect what was already a double-digit cushion.

Between injuries and inexperience, the Knights haven’t had many opportunities in practice to work on running their offense in the tight late-game situations that will inevitably arise over the final month of the season.

But the coach certainly wasn’t going to complain about a 22-point road victory.

“It wasn’t very disciplined, but they were having fun,” Lewis said. “Against this team it seemed to work.”