South River girls basketball coach Mike Zivic warned his team before Saturday morning’s game with its rival, Southern: It didn’t matter what their record was or how many matchups they claimed over the Bulldogs.
If they let a team hang around, that team would build confidence. And confidence, Zivic cautioned, is a scary thing.
In Saturday’s fourth quarter, the coach’s premonition proved right. Southern, which trailed by as many as 21 points in the second quarter, climbed within a possession of tying the game in the fourth.
But a pair of layups and a foul shot corrected that as South River hung on for to win, 64-55. Juniors Skylar Woodyard and Karlee Hawkins accounted for most of that scoring with 21 and 20 points, respectively.
“We had to solidify the traps. We had to get to our spots,” Zivic said. “We couldn’t let people open, we had to communicate, and we were losing people in the back side. We had to do better in what we do.”.
It wasn’t a complete loss for Southern, though, as star senior Ava Wooster surpassed 1,000 career points in the first quarter. She already crossed the 500-rebound mark earlier this winter and 750 is a possibility. Coach Beth Tompkins couldn’t have felt prouder of a player who lost her freshman season to the pandemic and half her sophomore year to injury.
“Our last 1,000-point scorer was 10 years ago,” Tompkins said. “This was a big thing for us, for her to get to this point.”
While Southern (5-7) multitasked to play and to feed Wooster her milestone, South River (13-1) quick-stepped towards a devastating run. Seahawks pickpocketed Bulldogs before they’d cross mid court, arming Hawkins, Woodyard and freshman Cami Burke to fire to their heart’s content.
“We actually didn’t focus much [on Wooster’s achievement],” Zivic said. “Our focus was to slow her down regardless. I knew she was going to get it because she’s a great scorer. You can only slow those kinds of people down.”
Only when the Bulldogs harassed Seahawk shooters like gnats could Southern stop the bleeding and force a few turnovers of their own. That was enough to lessen the gap to 10 — and to give Wooster, who finished with 14 points, her moment.
The center battled through a jam at the post to sink her third basket of the morning and the whistle blew.
The first girl to meet her was not a Bulldog, but Hawkins, who excitedly asked, “Was that it?” And then threw her arms around Wooster, beaming.
“She told me ‘I’m going to score my 1,000th points on you,’ and she did,” Hawkins said. “The only thing I can do is cheer for her. It’s amazing.”
But Southern had little else to celebrate early. A 21-11 second quarter let the Seahawks race to a 33-19 edge by the halftime buzzer.
“I was pretty happy at halftime. We looked at the stats — six assists, 10 steals, three turnovers — we had a great half,” Zivic said. “We held ’em to 19, and three of them were on an inbound play we run.”
Sometimes a sky is blue and you dress for sunny weather, but by the time you walk out the door, the gray rain is falling.
South River could attest to that kind of quick, disappointing change.
Wooster, Sidney Shaw (18 points), Huntyr Marks and Kaelyn Page unleashed a storm upon the hosts, taking full advantage of a complacent defense to drop more points in eight minutes than they mustered in the first half, nipping at the Seahawks’ heels at 49-41 by the end of the quarter.
“They came out of halftime stronger than us. We knew it was going to happen, because we did that to Annapolis yesterday,” Woodyard said. “We knew they’d go on a run, so we gave that run back to them.”
When Woodyard and Leila Bushee tried to regain control in the fourth, Shaw backed the Seahawks to a ledge with a basket to make it 54-51 with five minutes left.
South River called timeout and Tompkins impressed into her players to get bodies on Seahawks, box them out and take the open shot when they had it. Unfortunately, Tompkins said, her Bulldogs tend to be “a little streaky.”
Southern’s chances to take control bounced haplessly off the rim with rebounds scooped by Seahawks. But the real dagger came on the other end of the court. Southern’s fouls turned into Seahawks points and the margin grew to nine with a minute to go.
“I’m just glad we were able to get some shots in late. Maggie [Grove] had that big layup, and that was huge,” Zivic said. “I think [Southern] just ran out of gas.”
Tompkins hopes her team will focus in on the bright spots of this loss and leave some of the darker bits behind.
“We hang three quarters with a team but can’t seem to put the fourth away,” she said. “I think the longer we play together, the longer we’ll be consistent. I think we’ll be able to pull out some unexpected wins. … I always tell the girls, I do not count them out.”