First place in the Shenandoah District was on the line Friday night in an early-season contest between East Rockingham and Stuarts Draft, with both teams coming in undefeated in district play.
Draft shot 8-for-16 from behind the arc, but the offense became their best defense as they committed 28 turnovers and suffered a 61-45 loss to the Eagles.
“It was relentless pressure. You aren’t going to win a lot of ballgames turning it over 28 times no matter how well you shoot,” Draft coach Jason Kirby said.
Senior Morgan Holbert led the Cougars in scoring with 15, all of those coming from the 3-ball.
“I was proud of our toughness. There were times when we could’ve dropped our heads and quit but we kept at it,” Kirby said.
Trailing by 10 with a minute remaining in the third, East Rockingham got three quick baskets to close the quarter on a 6-0 run, and they continued to pour it on in the beginning of the fourth.
A 9-2 run opened the next quarter for the Eagles, as the lead swelled to 23 before a Draft timeout.
“We’ll have to go back to work in practice and work on our press break a little more," Kirby said.
The Eagles jumped out to an early 10-4 lead as the Cougars were turnover-prone due to the up-tempo play of East Rockingham.
Draft battled back, getting eight consecutive points from senior Kailey Sitzberger to tie things up at 12 and would trail by four at the first-quarter buzzer.
A drought plagued the Cougars for most of the second quarter, as they would go over six minutes without a bucket. In that time, East Rock’s lead grew to 11 at 28-17 before Draft closed the half on a 7-2 run capped off by a Mayzie Lewis 3-pointer.
Lewis also found her way into double-figure scoring with 12, while Sitzberger netted all 10 of her points in the first half.
Draft (8-3, 4-1 Shenandoah) will travel to Stonewall Jackson on Tuesday and Buffalo Gap on Friday before coming back home the following week.
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