Atoms Defense Leads to Victory Over Hornets

After bursting out of the gates to an 11-2 run in the opening quarter, the Herndon girls varsity basketball team lost focus. Annandale capitalized behind intense defense from Kelly Hughes and Hailey Brown to eventually steal the lead and hand Herndon its second loss in a row, 47-41. 

Hornet standout Deborah Headen played excellent defense, but was shut down by Hughes and Brown down in the post on offense, holding her to an uncharacteristically low eight points.

With Headen double-teamed, point guard Brianna Lowry ran the offense and performed well with a game-high 11 points along with four steals, but could never find anyone to dish the rock to in the paint, forcing the Hornets to shoot from the perimeter.

Brown said they had trouble at first but found a way keep Herndon out of the lane.

"At first we weren't able to handle the pressure but we settled down and picked up our defense," Brown said. "We were boxing out a lot and we had good passes."

But it was the massive amount of turnovers committed by Herndon that shifted the momentum to the Atoms in the second quarter and enabled them to take a 25-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

During halftime, Herndon Coach Reggie Barnes said his team had trouble communicating but they would remedy that before the third quarter.

"We lost focus—we lost focus and we weren't ready to compete but we will fix that," Barnes said.

Herndon looked the same in the second half as air balls, poor passes and unforced turnovers plagued the Hornets for the remainder of the night. Yet somehow Herndon managed to stay in it.

Lowry and Shaquilla Ferguson shot solidly from the stripe, and combined for a handful of steals and a block to keep Herndon within six points for most of the game.

The Hornets tough, full-court press was stymied in the last two quarters by quick outlet passing from Annandale's sophomore point guard Diana Hurtado, who found her front court open for some easy buckets.

Herndon's forwards could not post up or get position on their defenders, which led to double-digit defensive boards for the duo of Hughes and Brown.

"We knew they pushed the ball up really hard so we made an extra effort to get back out on defense," Hughes said. "We stopped their post players because they had a couple really good ones but I think our post players did a really good job."

Fellow forward Jackie Beathea rolled hard in the fourth and topped her game off with 12 points, five boards and three blocks to help the Atoms take down the Hornets, 47-41.

Hughes said she was proud of Beathea's effort and it was instrumental in the victory for Annandale.

"She had a pretty good game and she did a really good job getting rebounds, boxing out and stopping their post players," Hughes said.

Annandale will face T.C. Williams at home on Dec. 17 at 7:45 p.m.