When the offense isn’t clicking for Louisa County — and with just four points in the first couple of minutes of the first quarter, it wasn’t — the Lions know they can crank up the pressure and create some offense with an aggressive full court press.
“We weren’t really on offensively, so we needed our defense to win us this game,” said Louisa’s Olivia McGhee.
The defense delivered as the press helped the Lions overcome that slow offensive start and roll 70-42 over Fluvanna County to move to 2-0 on the season.
The Lions forced Fluvanna into turnover after turnover and Sylvie Jackson cashed in on a bunch of them, scoring 23 points on the night. The earliest string of turnovers in the back half of the first quarter ignited the Lions and broke the game open as they built an 18-3 lead by the end of the first half.
“Our defense is what’s going to determine how far we’re going to go this year,” said Louisa coach Nick Schreck. “Our intensity and being able to get deflections and get easy buckets, that turned the tide for us tonight. You can’t teach length and we have a very long team and a team that’s buying into being aggressive.”
McGhee and Jackson’s length created a lot of problems for the Flucos who were missing key ball handler Alana Carter-Johnston. After creating turnovers, more often than not the Lions also made the right extra pass at the right time and finished, with Alexis Chapman stepping up and scoring seven points in the second quarter as the Lions exploded for 27 points in that frame to build a 45-20 halftime advantage.
“I like putting pressure on the ball, getting those deflections and steals which end up turning into easy lay-ups in transition,” Jackson said.
Jackson and McGhee are known entities after freshman seasons where McGhee was the Jefferson District player of the year and Jackson was a first team All-JD pick, but it was clear Tuesday night too how much work they put in between their freshmen and sophomore seasons. Jackson is finishing consistently around the rim on seemingly every play and looked unstoppable in transition while making a handful of blocks.
“During quarantine she didn’t sit around and do nothing, she got out, she worked,” Schreck said. “You’re seeing her take another step this year.”
McGhee has somehow refined her passing from its already sharp form as a freshman, connecting with teammates on a couple of no look passes against the Flucos and putting teammates in position for quick releases by placing the ball exactly where they needed it.
“(Like Sylvie) she’s put in a ton of work this year,” Schreck said. “Her being able to take that next step and come out here and prove it — those two make us go, they’re a special duo and they’re not selfish. They want to see each other succeed, and that’s a huge thing for us.”
That said, a shorthanded group of Flucos refused to go quietly in Nick Ward’s debut as Fluvanna’s head coach. For a team replacing the bulk of last year’s starting lineup including All-JD picks Nevaeh Ivory, Jules Shepherd and Mya Wright, it was a pretty solid debut.
“They’re going to play hard for 32 minutes and gave it everything they had,” Ward said. “That’s all we can ask for.”
Sophomore Aniah Webb scored 15 points while handling point guard duties that aren’t usually part of her job description.
“She’s not even our point guard and she did a lot of good things for us, she took care of the ball,” Ward said. “And she didn’t get to come out, I told her she had to suck it up and keep going and she was able to.”
Abby Seal scored 11 points and knocked down three 3-pointers on the night while Khyariah Davis had 10 points.
The Lions aren’t scheduled for another game until January 15 while the Flucos will travel next Monday to take on Orange County at 7:30 p.m.
Louisa County’s Olivia McGhee talks about the Lions’ effort on the defensive end in a win over Fluvanna in First Off the Floor presented by @PT_acac pic.twitter.com/1nJNRSNfrr
— scrimmageplay (@scrimmageplay) December 30, 2020
