The Hidden Valley girls basketball team came to Roanoke College’s Bast Center Saturday afternoon knowing two things about their opponent from Floyd County.
The Lady Buffs are proficient with their full-court press and they love to put big numbers on the scoreboard.
The Lady Titans found a way to beat the first and outdo the second, as Hidden Valley pulled out the 68-63 win in the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout.
Putting their team on their shoulders under difficult circumstances that had come to light one day earlier, senior Hailey Singleton and junior Drew Freeland combined for 43 points to make sure fellow teammate Senia Garay would return to Roanoke this week with the Lady Titans having another peg in the win column.
Garay, a standout starter for the 16-1 Titans, was in Texas attending her grandfather’s funeral.
“It was tough,” Freeland said of Garay’s absence. “She’s one of the most important pieces of our team. Senia is the glue that holds us together. We really missed her.”
“Floyd County is a great team, one of the hardest teams in this area to play against. We were able to keep our composure and rely on our natural instincts to get the win.”
The game became a shootout from the outset, with nine lead changes in the first quarter before Hidden Valley closed the frame with a 7-0 run to lead 17-11.
The Titans looked ready to take control in the second quarter as Singleton, Freeland and sophomore Jordyn Sadler continually beat the Buffalo press for breakaways and easy layups that sent the teams to the locker room with the Titans up 37-23.
Hidden Valley pushed their advantage to 44-27 midway through the third before Floyd got hot from behind-the-arc to go on a 13-0 run, capped off by senior Natalie Booth’s 3-pointer that closed the Buff’s deficit to 44-40. Singleton finally ended the Titan scoring drought with a score, and when Booth hit another trey at the buzzer, the teams headed to the final 8 minutes with Hidden Valley ahead 52-46.
Booth opened the fourth quarter with her third 3-pointer. After Sadler scored to put the Titans up 54-49, Floyd’s Ashley Gallimore cashed in from long range to cut the deficit to 54-52.
But, Freeland answered on the other end with a 3-pointer that ignited a 7-0 Hidden Valley run capped off by a basket by Singleton.
The nine point cushion proved to be enough as Floyd could get no closer than 5 the rest of the way.
“Hailey and Drew picked her up,” Hidden Valley head coach Randy Bush noted of Garay’s absence. “Those two stepped up in a big way. They move the offense for us. Floyd County is a great team. Tonight we were patient and made good decisions.”
“We’ve been together since the fifth grade, so we have a feel of where the other’s going to be on the court,” Singleton said of her knockdown tandem with Freeland. “We knew Floyd County pressed a lot and was very strong on defense. We’ve been talking about how to handle it and tonight we were just cutting hard and running the court.”
Floyd sophomore Abigail Belshan had a team-high 20 points for the Buffaloes, with senior Ragan Wiseman netting 18 and Booth scoring 13 points for Floyd.
Bill Turner
