Virginia High School Basketball: Hidden Valley Inches by Lady Cougars

By CODY DALTON
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DUBLIN – Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. That has been the story in several close games this season for the Lady Cougars basketball team. Such was the case on Monday, when the team played an extremely close contest down to the wire, only to come up short in a tough 52-48 loss to River Ridge leading Hidden Valley at home.

“We were definitely competitive and had an opportunity to win,” said Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “We just have to take care of the ball. We played hard and played good defense. Our players did a nice job of staying out of foul trouble. We got the ball into scoring position, but we can’t turn the ball over and give them 24 more possessions.”

The Lady Cougars have now lost five games this season by five points or less. Four of those five losses by Pulaski (9-12, 4-5) were critical district contests against both Hidden Valley (lost 55-54 and 52-48) and Blacksburg (lost 55-50 and 39-38) with two of the losses coming this week. It also marks the eighth single digit loss this season overall.

Early on, it was all Hidden Valley’s Tyler Evans. The sophomore scored six early points, as the Titans (14-5, 7-1) took the early 6-3 lead. They would stretch out their lead to as high as seven before Raiven Patterson closed with a buzzer beating lay up. After the first, it was 12-7 in favor of the Titans.

An early lay up by Sydney Anderson would cut the Hidden Valley lead to just three points, but the Titans would continue to pressure the Cougar offense, forcing many turnovers. That pushed Hidden Valley to their largest lead of the game, 19-11.

That marked a turning point in the quarter. Not having key contributors Daisy Ball and Raiven Patterson on the court because of foul trouble, the Lady Cougars got key contributions from Maddy Chitwood. After Hannah Chaffin assisted in a Brittany Lawson score, Chitwood would get steals on back-to-back Titan possessions.

With Ball and Patterson returning to the lineup, Chitwood continued to impress. Ball would fail to convert on a lay up, but Chitwood was there for the offensive rebound and put back. Just before the end of the period, Chitwood would also connect on a three pointer, as Pulaski stormed back with a 10-0 run to take the 21-19 lead after halftime.

“Maddy is a kid who is always ready to go,” Grubb said. “She doesn’t need a lot of warm up time and in certain roles, she can really help you out. She got out there and gave us a spark when we were a little bit flat. She got out there with intensity. She got into the passing lane and got some steals. She just did a really good job.”

A few scores early in the third quarter pushed Pulaski to their biggest lead of the game. Patterson scored three points, Ball added a lay up, and Elizabeth Thacker hit two free throws, as the Cougar lead was seven, 28-21.

Before the quarter was over the Titans would climb back into the game. Senior Rachel Singleton would hit two jump shots and Lindsey Divers added a lay up. That closed the Cougar lead to just two points, 33-31, heading into the final quarter.

As she had done in the first quarter for the Titans, Evans would be a force for Hidden Valley early on in the fourth quarter. She would score two lay ups off of Cougar turnovers from the newly applied full court press. Pulaski would commit a costly 24 turnovers in the game.

“Turnovers just killed us,” Grubb said. “During the game, I knew they were pretty bad, but I didn’t realize we had 24 turnovers. Against a quality team like Hidden Valley, who is first place in the district, you usually can’t expect to be competitive when you commit 24 turnovers.”

Counteracting those mistakes was a season best effort by guard Raiven Patterson. The junior would will her team in the closing moments, scoring 11 of her game-high 16 points in the fourth.

“Raiven realized she needed to step up and help her team out,” Grubb said. “She was very communicative on defense by calling out screens and calling out switches. She was making sure we were matched up. She was being a leader out there.”

Despite Patterson’s efforts though, Hidden Valley refused to relinquish the lead. After Evans extended Hidden Valley’s lead to five, 51-46, the Cougars would drive down court and get a jump shot from Marlena Morrison. That cut the lead down to just three.

Pulaski would send Kayla Osborne to the free throw line with 2.2 seconds remaining and hoped for two misses. However, she would make one of two shots, as that would be enough to seal the win for Hidden Valley.

Patterson ended the game with 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and five steals. Sydney Anderson scored nine points and Ball added seven points. Chaffin led the Cougars in rebounds with five.

The Cougars have one more game remaining in the regular season before beginning defense of their River Ridge District Tournament Championship. The team is schedule to play Salem tonight on “Senior Night”, but the game could be changed due to weather. Grubb stressed the weight of Tuesday’s game.

“I think it is important that we play well in the last game,” Grubb said. “We definitely feel like we have something to prove in the tournament. If we start that off with a win in the last game of the regular season, it would be great.

“We played Salem last time and got ourselves down by double digits at halftime. Then we battle back after being down 18 or 19 and cut the lead to five in the fourth quarter. Then we had to foul a little bit. Salem is a very talented team. Of course, it is ‘Senior Night’. We have one senior who had done really well all season long. We look forward to honoring her. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot of people in the stands to support her and our team.”