With the stands packed to celebrate Riverheads High School’s 50th anniversary, the Gladiators girls basketball team went head-to-head with district rival Stuarts Draft, falling short in the second half for a 51-36 loss.
“As a team we rushed a lot of things, shooting too quickly and didn’t give ourselves better opportunities,” Riverheads coach Tim Morris said.
The Gladiators held the score close for the first half, going into halftime down by two points, 27-25.
Riverheads junior Carly Casto led with 10 of the Gladiators’ first-quarter 14 points, and added a 3-point shot to tie the score at 21.
“Our defensive intensity was not as good as it needed to be in the first half,” Stuarts Draft coach Jason Kirby said. “That Casto girl was tough to defend, so we switched to a box defense and increased our defensive intensity in the second half.”
Kailey Sitzberger led the Cougars on the night with three 3-pointers and just as many two-point field goals for a total of 19 points.
“She’s an amazing shooter,” Kirby said of Sitzberger. “She has the prettiest shot I have ever seen.”
The Cougars (15-3, 10-1 Shenandoah District) pulled ahead with a 10-point lead in the third period with Morgan Holbert putting up three 3-pointers to push her total to 13 on the night. For the Gladiators, the shots failed to connect.
“Our legs got weary in the second half,” Morris said. “We came out and we competed against a good team. We gave a lot of second-period shots and they took advantage of our missed shots.”
The Cougar defense held the Gladiators to only six points in the fourth period with two of those coming at the free-throw line.
The Gladiators (12-5, 6-5 Shenandoah District) travel to Luray for Shenandoah District action on Tuesday, while the Cougars host East Rockingham in a battle for first place in the district.
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