MC hoop girls seek wins

The Madison County girls basketball team hopes the second half of its season will be a complete turnaround from the first half. Through the first nine games of the season, the Mountaineer hoop girls are 1-8 with their lone 42-31 win at home against Luray’s Bulldog girls. The other games have not gone according to Madison Coach Katherine Johnson’s plan.

A tough early season schedule pitted the Madison girls against double-A opponents from much larger schools in a majority of its games. It was clear in the first game against Greene County’s William Monroe — which the Madison girls lost 57-29 — that the team would have a lot to work on as the season progressed. The team played well in both games against Orange Countyty’s Hornet girls, but still got stung 47-37 and 44-28.

Fluvanna County clearly also was a team that was going to overpower Madison this year as the Flucos flushed the Mountaineer girls 52-21 in away action. Madison and Fluvanna will face off again Jan. 26 in Madison.

Madison did fare better however when it started playing single-A foes from schools similar in size to Madison. Big Blue played Wilson Memorial, Page County and Luray this year in the single-A bracket. Page defeated Madison 52-41 in a Panther Country match-up. Wilson Memorial also beat the team in Augusta, but the score was unreported at press time.

Through all of the losses the squad has had this season, many individual players are still supplying silver linings to the otherwise dark clouds. Caitlyn Ford, a junior guard, is playing a majority of the game, only getting a few minutes of rest each game. Jordan Aylor, a sophomore guard, is a player who can be all over the court at once and is very versatile in the position she plays, whether it is as a rebounder or a scorer.

Cara McCurry is also a player who is good in the post, one able to pull down the rebounds and also put the points up in the paint that the Lady Mountaineers will need to win games in the second half of the season. Down low, she is joined by Ariel Long, who is both tenacious on defense and aggressive on offense.
Rachel Strahan is a good mid-range player with both the rebound capabilities while also being able to throw a jumper and sink it from inside the 3-point line.
Newcomer Milena Maksimova and seasoned player Laura Berry are both getting much playing time off the bench and both have an ability to change the way the opponents score because they are such big threats on defense.

The team will most certainly look to get wins when it enters competition in the Bull Run District. Its first BRD match-up is at home Jan. 7, when the Mountaineer girls will try to corral George Mason’s Mustang girls.