With their 9th win in 10 games – a 60-41 blowout of city-rival Patrick Henry last Thursday – the William Fleming Lady Colonels seem to be peaking at the right time of the season.
Indeed, it has been an impressive season for the Colonels thus far. At 14-4 (6-0), William Fleming sits alone in first place in the Western Valley District girls basketball standings, a game and a half ahead of second place Halifax. With a win in one of their two remaining games, the Colonels would clinch at least a share of the WVD title – something that hasn’t happened in over a decade.
“We’ve got high expectations that we’ve set for ourselves,” Head Coach Champ Hubbard said. “Last season we did, too, but I think we all felt that we fell short of those.”
Hubbard, of course, was referencing last season’s team, which started off 6-0 before faltering down the stretch, losing in the district tournament to Halifax and finishing 13-10.
This year, however, the Colonels have gotten stronger as the season has worn on. Part of that is due to the difficult schedule the team has played, which has featured games against well respected AA schools such as Hidden Valley, Salem and Northside. The Colonels have also been competitive in games against AAA schools from Northern Virginia, including a narrow loss to Oakton High School (last year’s state runner-up) in January, and a 68-61 win over Herndon at the Pulaski Tournament in December. The Hornets are currently ranked #11 in the state by MaxPreps.com
But none of those games made the impact on Fleming’s season like the game after their huge upset of Herndon: a 46-32 loss to Fairfax High School.
“We came into that game cocky, over-confident and some things went wrong and we got beat pretty good,” Hubbard said. “After that, we all made a commitment to doing the right things, staying focused, not reading the newspapers and working hard.”
The other thing that makes the Colonels so dangerous is their depth. Ten players on the roster see significant minutes, and three average over 10 points per game.
It all starts with senior point guard Tiasia McGeorge, a four-year starter who will surpass 1,000 career points in the next few games. The ultimate team leader, Hubbard lauds McGeorge as “the most court-savvy player I’ve ever seen.”
“She is our general and our coach on the floor,” Hubbard said.
The Colonels’ best all-around player might very well be senior forward Salesse Stovall. The Marshall University signee – Fleming’s first Division I signee in a decade – leads the team in scoring and rebounds per game, and is the Colonels’ go-to player in the clutch.
The Colonels have also gotten important contributions from their trio of freshman: shooting guard Ryjae Anderson, forward Erika Coleman and back-up point guard Keshonde Haynes.
As tournament play nears, that depth, as well as the high level of competition the team has faced, will prove invaluable. But Hubbard points to something else as proof that his team will be difficult to beat.
“The kids are buying into it now,” he said. “They believe in each other and they believe they can win. For a team to beat us, they’ll have to make us believe we can’t win. Good luck with that.”
By Matt Reeve [email protected]
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