CUMBERLAND – Something had to give in Wednesday night's girls basketball game between Buckingham High School and Cumberland.

The Lady Knights hadn't won a game all season, and the CHS girls team was looking to break an almost five-year losing streak against James River District opponents.

Toward the end of the back-and-forth battle, Buckingham was able to make the adjustments to break the game open and take a 48-36 victory in a game played at the Cumberland Middle School Gymnasium.

“Now we have one less worry,” said BCHS head coach Ethan Abruzzo. “We hit all our goals for the game except one – free throw shooting. We can't run with teams, which means we're going to have to play good defense and avoid turnovers. Our goal is to score more than 40 points, while holding our opponent under that number. We cut down on our turnovers, and we were able to box-out and get rebounds.”

Cumberland led 22-19 at halftime, but Buckingham took the lead for good late in the third quarter. Elynn Lee put BCHS up with a short jumper at 28-26 with 1:59 left to play in the third quarter, and a lay-up by Keona White gave the Lady Knights a four-point lead at 30-26 heading into the final period.

Buckingham began the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run to hold a 41-28 advantage with a little over two minutes left to play.

Cumberland switched to a full-court pressure defense, which resulted in an 8-1 run. CHS guard I-Mecka Anderson scored six of the eight points, and a steal and lay-up by Akira Davenport cut Buckingham's lead to six points at 42-36 with a minute left to play.

That was as close as CHS could get. The Lady Dukes missed two good shots at the bucket which would've cut the game to just two points, and White put the game away with 30.6 seconds left, with a lay-up to give the Lady Knights their first victory on the season.

“We're looking at it as we're 1-2 in the James River District,” said Abruzzo. “Hopefully, we can build on this, and have a good season from here.”

White led the Lady Knights with 17 points, while Robyn Davis had 13 and Lee chipped in nine. Anderson scored 17 points to lead the Lady Dukes, while Javonda Holman scored six.

Cumberland was scheduled to host Appomattox on Thursday night, and will host Nottoway on Monday, before returning to James River District play on Tuesday at Randolph-Henry.

The Lady Dukes defeated Nottoway earlier in the season, and lost a close game against R-HHS on January 7.

Buckingham will travel to Randolph-Henry on Friday night, and will host Central of Lunenburg on Tuesday. BCHS lost to each team by nine points in its first meetings with R-HHS and Central.