Lady Eagles improve to 7-0 with key district victories

Prince Edward County High School’s varsity girls basketball team has sustained its strong start this season, going 3-0 to start the new year after going 4-0 across November and December.

The Lady Eagles visited rival Goochland High School on Monday evening and won by a score of 59-48.

Facing other stiff James River District competition Friday when hosting Nottoway High School, Prince Edward was able to pull away in the waning moments off of a three-pointer and two free throws from senior point guard Da’Mya Harris to win 51-45.

“At least we got by,” Lady Eagles Head Coach Carlton Redd said. “I can’t put it any other way than that — we got by. But we get everybody’s best game without a doubt, and we got a good game out of them tonight. We don’t discount anyone. We’ve got to be ready to play everybody.”

Prince Edward led the Lady Cougars 10-8 after the first quarter, 27-19 at halftime and 33-31 after three quarters.

The Lady Eagles managed to keep ahead for most of the game, but with three minutes, 39 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Nottoway went up 40-39.

Junior guard Ke’Mya Rux responded for Prince Edward, hitting a jumper to put her team back up 41-40 with 3:17 left.

A couple of minutes later, the score was tied 43-43, but then Lady Eagles junior forward Katlyn Harris came off the bench and contributed clutch play under the hoop, making a shot down low with a little more than 1:30 remaining to put her team up by two.

Rux made it a 46-43 lead after drawing a foul and going 1-for-2 on free throws with 1:18 left. The Lady Cougars hit an inside shot to come within one with 45 seconds on the clock, but then Da’Mya Harris scored the final five of her team-high 19 points on either side of a Nottoway turnover to secure the win.

In pinpointing what the key was to pulling away for the victory in the tense final minutes, Redd said, “A couple of easy shots that we had missed we made, because Katie made a big basket under the bucket down here, and we had missed those earlier. It was making the easy baskets, doing the simple things — nothing spectacular. We just threw the ball away at inopportune times.”

Putting his team’s development in perspective, he said, “Overall, I’ve got some vital cogs that we depend on a lot that are young, and they made young mistakes. That’s part of the game.”

Rux finished the game with 13 points, sophomore forward/guard DiNasia Scott scored seven points and senior center Madison Lehman added five.

Lehman fouled out with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“That changes the way we do things, so we had to rely on some things that we hadn’t had to rely on before, so it was a good test, good experience in that situation that we had to lean on other people,” Redd said. “Some came through, some didn’t, but in the end, we did enough to win.”

Citing standouts he observed in the game, he said, “Rux came off the bench and did well for us again, and Katie, she did well. And of course, D(a’Mya) hit a big shot there at the end, a big three-pointer to give us a little breathing space.”

On Jan. 2, Prince Edward routed Central Lunenburg High School 52-13. Redd said the Lady Chargers are in the midst of a rebuild that will have its ups and downs, and his team caught them in a down period.

Lehman led the Lady Eagles with 19 points, Da’Mya Harris added 12, Scott had seven and Rux had six.

“Our younger people, they didn’t have as many jitters as they had tonight,” Redd said Friday.

Prince Edward (7-0) hosts Buckingham County High School (6-1) on Wednesday and Cumberland County High School (2-5) on Friday. Tipoff for both games is set for 7 p.m.