The Lightridge Lightning haven’t been around all that long, but their girls program is slowly but surely making progress. On Thursday night on the road the Lightning defeated another young team, the Loudoun County Captains, 50-35 in Dulles District play.
“We’re just trying to get better every day,” said Lightridge Head Coach Ed Knox after the game. “We played well tonight and got a victory against County, got one against Dominion–two teams we had never beaten before–so for us this great.”
“And it’s all on the girls. They work so hard all the time.”
Early on his team found itself in a close one with County, up only 10-9 after a quarter. Then Lightridge started to hit some shots and set up its full court pressure. The Lightning only allowed the Captains six second quarter points, and took a 25-15 halftime lead.
“We want to put that full court pressure on,” said Knox. “Our goal is to force turnovers. We know we’re going to turn the ball over, but we want to force more than we’re doing.”
In the second half the Lightning expanded their lead, buoyed in part by junior Riley Hwang finding freshman Jalyn Childress open on the perimeter twice for three-pointers. After three quarters Lightridge was up 17 points, and while Loudoun County fought back in the fourth quarter, the result was decided.
Childress led the Lightning (2-2, 3-2) with 14 points on the evening. Hwang didn’t have a great shooting night, but still helped spark her team with eight rebounds and four assists. Nine Lightning in all scored, including Knox’s final player into the game, junior Meha Parekh. Parekh brought the Lightning bench to its feet as she buried a three-pointer to close the scoring.
Loudoun County fought the whole way, using a rebounding edge to get multiple looks at the basket and get to the line more than the Lightning. But the Captains only made 8 of their 20 free throws, which squandered an opportunity to get the game much closer.
Captains sophomore Amaeya Trotter led her team with 12 points, impressing with her ability to get all the way to the basket on offense. Aisha Assiamah-Damti added 11 points, while fellow junior Allison Mallow had 13 rebounds.
The Captains (0-2, 1-5) worked hard, but it wasn’t enough on this night against a team that also gave a sterling effort.
“We just played really, really hard,” said Knox, who expressed his gratitude to be the Lightning’s coach. “They’re a wonderful group of girls and they work hard every day. We’re really young but they never take a minute off.”
–Chris Jollay
all stats are unofficial
| LOUDOUN COUNTY | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| FADELEY | 0-7 | 0-3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| ASSIAMAH-DAMTI | 3-16 | 5-9 | 11 | 8 | 2 | |
| PAUL | 2-8 | 1-5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | |
| MALLOW | 1-5 | 0-1 | 2 | 13 | 2 | |
| TROTTER | 5-7 | 2-2 | 12 | 2 | 1 | |
| Ward | 2-4 | 0-0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | |
| Chinn | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lavery | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Manni | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Davis | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 13-48 | 8-20 | 35 | 36 | 8 | |
| Threes: Ward 1-1, Fadeley 0-1, Lavery 0-1 | ||||||
| LIGHTRIDGE | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| TAYLOR | 1-2 | 1-2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | |
| HWANG | 2-10 | 0-0 | 5 | 8 | 4 | |
| CHILDRESS | 5-13 | 1-2 | 14 | 3 | 0 | |
| PIERCE | 2-4 | 2-5 | 6 | 6 | 1 | |
| OVERBAUGH | 0-3 | 4-5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | |
| Hall | 3-4 | 0-0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | |
| Bollhorst | 2-8 | 0-0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | |
| Samson | 2-3 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |
| Thomas | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lawrence | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Parekh | 1-1 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 18-52 | 8-14 | 50 | 29 | 9 | |
| Threes: Childress 3-8, Parekh 1-1, Taylor 1-2, Hwang 1-3, Lawrence 0-1, Overbaugh 0-2, Bollhorst 0-2 | ||||||