AMELIA – The Cumberland High School girls basketball team was consistently inconsistent in the Dukes' 53-40 road loss to James River District leader Amelia on Tuesday night.

The 40 points scored by Cumberland doesn't sound impressive at all, but considering that CHS was held to two points in the first quarter and four in the third, the Dukes (4-6, 3-3 JRD) proved they can score some points.

And that's what's frustrating to a team that's seen a similar range of highs and lows over the course of the season.

“You can't score two points in one quarter and four in another and expect to win – especially over a team like Amelia,” said CHS head coach Omar Liggins. “I don't care what you do the other two quarters, it's not going to happen.”

The Dukes fell behind 16-2 at the end of the first quarter in a game that looked to be well on its way to a rout, but after falling down 18-2 early in the second, CHS closed the half with a 15-6 run that had them back in the contest, despite the cold start.

CHS forward Taylor Parker, who scored all of her six points in the second quarter, got things going with a pair of high-arching baskets in the first two minutes of the second period. Cumberland guard Annesha Harris and Akira Davenport buried three-pointers to help the Dukes cut the deficit to seven points at 27-17 at the break.

Harris hit one of two foul shots and a three pointer in the first 1:56 of the third quarter to pull the Dukes to within four points at 25-21, but the bottom dropped out.

Amelia held CHS to one shot on the Dukes' possessions, while the Raiders capitalized on numerous second chance opportunities to end the quarter on a 14-0 run and take a 39-21 lead into the final period.

Harris and Davenport tried to shoot the Dukes back into the game. Back-to-back three pointers by the duo cut Amelia's lead to 49-32, but by then the result had all but been decided and both teams played out the string with reserves.

“We have to rebound better,” said Liggins. “Amelia is a long team, and they can get a ton of rebounds just on their height advantage, but they also did a better job than we did at boxing out. If we box out better on both ends of the court, we probably don't have that dry spell in the third quarter.

“We only hit two free throws while the game was still in doubt. That's not going to get it done.”

Amelia was led in scoring by forwards Takia Williams and Jasmine Mitchell. Williams scored 20, while Mitchell added 17.

Harris led the Dukes with 11 points, while Davenport scored nine, all on three-pointers.

“We showed that we can score points. We scored 34 points in two quarters of play. In girls basketball, teams that double that effort usually win.”

Cumberland was scheduled to travel to Nottoway on Friday, and will travel to Randolph-Henry on Tuesday, January 15, before returning home to face Central on January 18.