Lady Dragons fall to Knights, 47-37

The William Monroe varsity girls basketball team finished off its regular season atop the Jefferson District. They looked to carry that momentum into the district tournament.
After a long break (due to having a bye for the first round of the tournament), the Lady Dragons beat Fluvanna earlier in the week for the third time this season, advancing to the tournament final to face Charlottesville.
During the regular season the teams split games, both winning at home in very close match ups. So this tournament had all the makings to be another battle to the very end.
The game began with everything going the Dragons way. Melanie Lamb scored the game’s first basket on a lay up right off the opening tip.
Monroe stuck with that early momentum as they quickly jumped out to an early 7-2 lead. The Dragons defense caused the Black Knight offense to turn over the ball several times early in the first.
But Charlottesville would have an answer, going on a 10-3 scoring run to close out the quarter with the lead at 12-10.
Neither team was able to really separate from each other throughout the second quarter. Whenever either team would start to look as if they were going to pull away, the other would have an answer, keeping the score very close.
As the game reached the halfway point the score was just 24-21 in favor of the Black Knights.
The Dragons looked to start the second half with the same force they had started the first. But the Charlottesville defense wasn’t going to let that happen.
The Black Knights went to a zone defense that seemed to have Monroe’s number. The Lady Dragons became very passive, and their offense seemed as if they were stuck in mud.
Facing a widespread Charlottesville defense, the Ladies turned the ball over, ending any scoring chance. With these offensive struggles, the Black Knights were able to get the biggest lead of the night, as they got multiple chances on the offensive end.
The Knights’ offensive rebounding kept the Dragons on defense throughout most of the quarter. As the third quarter came to an end, Monroe was only able to put up six points and trailed Charlottesville 34-27.
The fourth quarter went much like the third. Charlottesville’s offense rebounding continued to be the Achilles heal of the Dragons. 
The Black Knights held around a nine-point lead throughout most of the quarter. Monroe would put up one last fight as the game was coming to a close: Alex Cave provided a spark by scoring four straight points, narrowing the deficit to just six.
The Black Knights missed their next two attempts at one-and-one on the free throw line, but the Dragons were not able to capitalize to get any closer. Charlottesville would score the last four points of the quarter to win the game by a final score of 47-37.
Coach Philip Lamb was still very pleased with his teams’ effort.
“I thought we played great defensively,“ he said. “We played with a lot of effort against a really good team.“
Coach Lamb also said: “They hurt us bad on the boards all night, and when they went to a zone, our offense bogged down through critical times of the game.“
Leading the Dragons with ten points was Leah Krynitsky; Bethany Leake added nine and Cave had seven.
The Dragons season is not over. At press time on Tuesday, February 24, they were preparing to host the Fluvanna Flucos in a regional game. It’s the fifth game this season between the two teams.
Also the boy’s varsity basketball team lost to Western Albemarle in the semi-finals of their Jefferson District tournament by a final score of 67-59. But their season is not yet done either; at press time, they were preparing travel to Western again on Tuesday to face the Warriors in their regional game.