sports@southwesttimes.com
CHRISTIANSBURG – Kasey Holcomb hit a three point shot to start the game and the Lady Cougar basketball never looked back, as Pulaski took an impressive 70-35 district win over Christiansburg on the road Tuesday.
The win ends a three game losing streak, which included heartbreaking losses to the No. 6 AA team in Virginia, Salem, as well as Hidden Valley, and Blacksburg.
“Tonight was a good victory,” said Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “It feels good to get back on the winning side of things. The kids did a good job. We take every district opponent seriously. We had a very successful game against Christiansburg last time, so we were looking forward to getting out there and playing some good ball. The kids executed well, played hard, and did a good job.”
The Cougars (8-10, 3-3), who defeated Christiansburg (2-15, 0-6), 65-33, earlier this year, went with a different looking lineup to start the game, as they were without Raiven Patterson due to an illness.
“Raiven wasn’t there,” Grubb said. “She’s been sick. Everybody picked up the slack together, worked hard, and played really well to get the victory.”
Daisy Ball also did not start, but she made up for lost time. Following a Blacksburg timeout, Ball would drive and be fouled on back to back Cougar possessions. She would make three of four free throws.
Pulaski would play extremely good defense in the first quarter as well, forcing multiple Christiansburg turnovers. The Cougars would take the early 20-4 lead.
The combination of Kasey Holcomb to Daisy Ball would work early and often in the second quarter. It would lead to scoring situations and free throw opportunities for Ball and Holcomb would garner multiple assists.
Christiansburg would claw back in the quarter with a 20 point performance, but not to be outdone by the 23 points the Lady Cougars scored. The closing moments of the second saw three Cougars – Maddy Chitwood, Hannah Chaffin, and Kelli Duncan – all hit three pointers. The Cougars shot 57% from three point territory in the first half and took a commanding 43-24 lead into halftime.
“We shot the ball well and I think our focus going into the game was offensively to just have a good field goal percentage,” Grubb said. “At times, we shot under 40% and it was mostly due to poor shot selection. So we figured if we were more careful about it, we could have a really good shooting percentage this game.”
With a 19 point lead, the Cougars did not back down and continued to play strong on the defensive end in the second half. Steal after steal led to more Cougar points. In total, Pulaski had 30 steals in the game.
Chaffin would have three steals in the fourth quarter, all leading to wide open lay ups. She would finish with a team-high eight steals and led the Cougars with 14 points in the game.
“The thirty steals were great,” Grubb said. “Hannah led the team with eight steals. That is just athleticism, court awareness, and just being in position defensively. We like to pressure the wings and we felt like we could pressure the wings. We jumped in the passing and that led to transition buckets. Hannah may have had eight steals, but she also had 14 points. You can score a lot of points when you get steals like that.”
Daisy Ball scored 13 points, grabbed five rebounds, and had six assists. Kasey Holcomb had 11 points, six assists, and seven steals. Sydney Anderson had a near double-double with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Pulaski returns to court on Thursday when they play host to Cave Spring. The Cougars defeated the Knights earlier this year, 65-33, in Roanoke. A sincere token of good will from the Knights has Grubb’s respect, but he knows the Knights will give it their all come Thursday.
“Cave Spring has a really good program and we have a lot of respect for their coaches and kids,” Grubb said. “When we went up to their place a few weeks ago, that is when Shaniqua first injured her knee and tore her ACL. Their coaches and players were gracious enough to think of her and send her a card.”
“They called and asked how she was doing and signed a card. That is class act from a district competitor. We did well against them last time. I look forward to having a good game against them Thursday. I know they are going to give us their best shot. We have got to be ready for that. We pretty played good tonight, but we want to play even better Thursday night against Cave Spring.”
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