The Heritage Pride girls basketball team is known for its defense, and Friday night at VCU’s Siegel Center in the VHSL Class 4 Championship Game, it showed why. The Pride held Salem scoreless for over five minutes to open the game, and held the Spartans to 11 first half points en route to a 46-37 victory.
The Pride (25-3) never trailed. The defensive gameplan and execution that resulted in the team’s ultimate goal was superb, as Heritage Coach Tayler Cook had sophomore Keira Stanford faceguard Salem junior guard Gabrielle Crawley.
“We do a lot of defense in practice and it is not fun,” said first-year Heritage Coach Tayler Cook after the game. “We worked hard all week to make sure #4, Gabby, didn’t touch the ball–she’s a fantastic player. We’ve never seen them run an offense without her initiating it. I thought Keira [Stanford] did a fantastic job guarding her.”
“As all year, our defense leads to our offense and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
As good as Heritage’s defense is and was Friday night, there had to be offense to win a state championship. Junior forward Alyssa Stanford provided a lot of that, registering 23 points and 15 rebounds.
“Alyssa is a fantastic basketball player,” Coach Cook said. “She has guard skills on the outside, she can score on the inside. She stayed after practice putting up shots….to her credit that work ethic is the difference in these situations.”
Stanford’s 15 rebounds were key as well, as the Pride outrebounded Salem (27-3) 43-33 on the evening. Heritage’s offense didn’t have to be terribly efficient as a result–one, because of its defense, and two, the rebounding edge. Heritage was able to get significantly more shots up than Salem, 55-43.
“That was a big factor,” said Salem coach Scott Jester of the rebounding disparity. “The extra possessions meant we had to defend for a lot longer, which was tiring.”
“Heritage dictated the terms of the game from the beginning,” he added. “Their style kind of lends itself to a game played in the 30’s or 40’s, and we wanted to get up into the 50’s or 60’s…we never really got into a rhythm, never really got into a flow.”
Though jubilant after the game, Heritage’s starting five was tired as well. Even on a larger college court, Cook played her starters essentially the whole game, which makes Heritage’s defensive performance all the more remarkable.
Asked if she thought her team’s defense could carry Heritage all the way to a championship, junior Riley Makitka said she did.
“Honestly, I thought it could. When we’re not scoring in a halfcourt set, our defense, especially in a press, leads to steals, leads to points and really gets us going,” she said.
Makitka, the Dulles District Player of the Year, finished with six points, six boards, and to her point, six steals. Kaitlyn Puzenski had seven points and 10 rebounds, and fellow senior Rachel Stewart had six points and five assists.
“I think this year, different from all the rest it took all of us to get here,” said Puzenski. “I think this year we put ourselves aside and focused on working together because that is Heritage basketball.”
It was the 18th straight win for Heritage, which hadn’t lost since a game since late December, versus private school power St. Anne’s Belfield. The Pride had already avenged their two earlier season losses, to Woodgrove and John Handley.
“At the start of the year we did not trust ourselves,” said Cook. “I told them every day how good they were…and they just didn’t believe it. I think the difference maker down the stretch…in this 18-game stretch there was not a team that we put out, didn’t matter if I said they were the best team in the state–they said, don’t worry, we’re ready coach, we’ve got it.”
–Chris Jollay
