Va. AA Division 4 Title Game Preview

Raiders Take on Turner Ashby in State Final

By Paul Tenorio

Thursday, March 12, 2009

As Loudoun County Coach Kevin Reed broke down tape of Charlottesville, the team his Raiders would face in the Virginia AA Division 4 state semifinals, he noticed a tendency of Black Knights star Shontae Payne.

Payne, who scored 30 points against the Raiders in an Region II playoff upset in Leesburg last season and also put up 16 points in the first half of this year's Region II championship against Loudoun County, was getting her points going to the right.

So Reed game planned for Tuesday night's game with a focus on pushing Payne left and also limiting senior forward Tanyqua Williams.

The adjustments proved to be critical.

Loudoun County limited Payne and Williams to just seven combined first half points as the Raiders opened up a commanding 28-point halftime lead in what would end up being a second consecutive blowout win in the state tournament.

"Basically we took them out of the game right from the start," Reed said in the postgame press conference. "And when you take them out of the game with the way we can shoot in transition and kind of balance the floor, [we] kind of took over."

Now, just one win away from Loudoun County's first ever basketball state championship, Reed must yet again find a way to slow down his opposing team's best players.

The Raiders face another familiar opponent, Turner Ashby, in the championship bout – the Knights downed Loudoun County, 69-57, in the Raiders' second game of the season.

In that contest, Loudoun County led by eight at halftime only to fall after allowing 42 second-half points. And Turner Ashby stars Kirby Burkholder and Nikki Newman scored 25 and 19 points, respectively.

No doubt, Reed will once again look to his defense to kick-start a team playing its best basketball of the season at the right time. The Raiders stayed in Richmond to watch Turner Ashby play, and Reed admitted to watching several game films in the past few days.

"We are making adjustments, we are going to do a few things differently, but not a lot differently," Reed said. "We will do things differently like we did with Shontae and Williams. … They do have tendencies and we are going to focus on that."

The Raiders will face perhaps their most difficult challenge of the season in Turner Ashby, which has lost just once this year and has not allowed more than 46 points since Jan. 5.

"There is no question they are a formidable opponent," Reed said after Tuesday's win.

But while Loudoun County fell to the Knights earlier this season, there were some positives to draw from the result. The 57 points scored by the Raiders were the most surrendered by Turner Ashby all season.

And with an average margin of victory of 40.5 points in the state playoffs, there is no doubt Loudoun County has come a long way from the team that stepped onto the court on Dec. 3.

"No question," Reed said. "It is a much more confident team. This will be our 30th game of the year, so obviously our experience over the year [has grown] and we actually feel really good. The mood has been great the last month."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks