Girls basketball team falls to William Campbell

Laura Clark / Nelson County Times
Published: January 15, 2008

With poor shooting and trouble breaking the press, Nelson was down 9-2 halfway through the first quarter. The Govs got back in the game with a spurt of aggression. At the low post, Sarah Buckley put back a rebound, and at the other end of the court she blocked a shot and gained possession.

Senior Jasmine Humbles was also aggressive down low, leading her team with 14 rebounds. Point guard Markita Martin hit her first three of night for the Govs to take a brief lead early in the second quarter. Martin then hit two more three-pointers, and Kestrel Kerl found her perimeter shot to give Nelson a 25-23 halftime lead.

Nelson struggled to break William Campbell's full-court press in the third quarter, but kept the game close by making a few foul shots. Humbles continued to be aggressive on the boards, driving to the basket and grabbing offensive rebounds.

Then, speedy point guard Shamika Hubbard opened up on the Govs. She stole the ball three times and scored each time, either with a layup or from the foul line.

"Once we got a couple steals and made a couple layups that we missed in the first half...that really turned us on," Hubbard said.

Hubbard got help running up the score from fellow senior Rasheeda Crews, who also had a steal and layup and was knocking down baseline jumpers, too.

The Govs played a 3-2 zone the first half, but switched to man-to-man once they were down by 10 points in the fourth quarter. William Campbell found open holes and beat players driving to the basket.

Buckley said the Govs were worn out in the fourth quarter and stopped communicating.

"I don't feel like we gave up," she said. "I just feel like we got down on ourselves and couldn't get back up."

For Gov coach Lloyd Gray, the game really came down to Nelson's 31 turnovers. The Govs boxed out well. After Humbles, Martin grabbed eight rebounds, and Kim Maddox snatched six. But that didn't make up for the turnovers. Gray said the biggest problem for the team was a lack of focus.

"We're going to have to go back to fundamentals and not be concerned with plays," Gray said.

The Govs (3-6, 1-2) were led by Martin, who had 20 points and six steals. Humbles had 13 points, Kerl had six, and Buckley had five. Hubbard led the Generals (8-4, 3-1) with 17 points.

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