Friday afternoon in Richmond, Alainah McKavish scored 22 points as Clarke County won the VHSL Class 2 state title 67-56 over Union.
Not only did McKavish get to celebrate a state title with her friends and teammates, including her younger sister Paige, McKavish during the game passed Carla Holmes’ school record of 2,215 points scored in a career.
“You couldn’t ask for a better player on and off the court,” said Clarke Coach Shad McCaw. “That is an accomplishment–that is a 40-year record…couldn’t happen to a better person.”
The first half was a tough battle for the Eagles (27-2) against a game Bears team from southwest Virginia, which came via a seven-hour bus ride. Union limited McKavish to six points in the first half off 2-8 shooting from the field. At one point Union led 20-14, but McCaw’s team got a not-wholly-unexpected lift off the bench from senior guard Paige Stemberger.
Stemberger, a former starter who has this season demonstrated enormous value to the team as a sixth-woman type, scored seven second quarter points to get Clarke right back into it. At halftime the Eagles led 26-25.
“We’re fortunate we have Stemberger coming off the bench,” said Coach McCaw. “She accepted that role and I’m very fortunate that she did accept that role, and obviously you saw she came in and was a big contributor for us.”
The second half was when McCaw’s team started to find its groove. Alainah McKavish buried a three-pointer right away, and Haley Foltz followed that up with a trey of her own. McKavish then scored six more points as Clarke built its lead to double digits.
“Once I hit that three I said, oh, we got this,” Alainah McKavish said. “We came out of the locker room we just punched them hard and played our style of basketball.”
There were still anxious moments ahead. Alainah McKavish picked up her fourth foul with 3:03 left in the third quarter, and starters Eryn Demko and Kendall Harman had already picked up four fouls each by that point. Later in the quarter Stemberger picked up her fourth foul. If that wasn’t enough, Paige McKavish had to temporarily leave the game with an injury.
Clarke County, with only nine players on the roster, was severely strained, so Coach McCaw made the decision to check Alainah McKavish back in.
“Alainah was fighting four fouls…and she was very smart about that,” he said. “We moved her to the top of the defense and that benefitted her since she wasn’t down there banging and getting some silly fouls.”
“It was definitely frustrating,” said Alainah McKavish about her foul trouble. “I just had to fight through adversity and know I had to stop fouling.”
Clarke was able to hold its lead, as Union (19-10) started to put up quick shots in an effort to cut the deficit. The Bears went 0-15 from three-point range, and Clarke, which was out-rebounded in the first half, did a much better job on the boards late. The Eagles would then push the ball in transition to get easy buckets, and ice the game.
Paige McKavish, a sophomore, had 13 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. Her aggressive defense (three blocks, two steals) was important, especially with a lot of her teammates in foul trouble. Stemberger finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds, certainly an impressive job on the boards for a smallish guard. Sophomore guard Savannah McCaw pitched in 12 points and six rebounds.
Alainah had won a state title with Clarke when she was a freshman, but this one was even more special in a lot of ways. She was the leader on this squad, she broke the school record, and she got to do it with sister Paige by her side.
“All I wanted to do was win a state championship with her [Paige], and it felt amazing.”
–Chris Jollay