BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BRISTOL, Va. – Things were looking up as the Lady Cobras walked to their locker room at halftime.
A 14-8 run to close the first half energized the bench and made a comeback, if not plausible, at least possible. Hope swept through the home stands.
Then halftime ended and all was lost.
The Lady Cobras were outscored 38-19 in the second half on Monday night, losing to visiting Pikeville College 78-47 at Virginia High. The loss extends VI’s current losing streak to eight games and drops the Lady Cobras’ record to 2-13.
“[Pikeville] did that to us at their place [earlier this year].” VI coach Jaclyn Dickens said. “We were right there in the first half and usually we’re a second half team, and I thought we’d be good coming out. But [Pikeville coach Bill Watson] must have said something to them at halftime to get them going.”
After trailing by as many as 17 late in the first half, the Lady Cobras trimmed the Lady Bears’ lead to single digits with 1:55 remaining before halftime and entered intermission down 40-28.
But Pikeville began the final period with a 16-2 run in which six different Lady Bears found the basket. VI scored four points in the first ten minutes of the second half, and shot 15.6 percent from the floor after half time.
“Late in the first half they got into the bonus and we kept fouling them,” Watson said. “We talked about that at halftime and made a couple of adjustments against their 1-3-1 zone to allow us to get some easy looks at the basket.”
Pikeville routinely carved up the VI transition defense on Monday, using quick passes through the press and into the post for easy layups.
The main beneficiary of said defense was the Mid-South Conference’s leading scorer – Natiera Hinton, one of five 6-footers in the Lady Bears’ rotation – whose athletic post play and refined outside game helped her finish with a game-high 18 points.
VI, however, was not without its own highlights. Three Lady Cobra players finished with double-digit point totals, including freshman Nicole Collins’ team-high 15.
And while a loose VI defense was constantly shredded for easy buckets, it also forced the Lady Bears into 20 turnovers.
But VI never reaped the benefits of its active defense.
VI was almost as haphazard with the ball as the Lady Bears, gifting Pikeville 19 turnovers, and the Pikeville height advantage made inside scoring nearly impossible for VI – they would finish just 23.3 percent shooting from the floor. The Lady Cobras’ outside aim was even worse, going 0-10 from 3-point range.
“Once it doesn’t go well for us we just break down and stop,” Dickens said. “But if we get a steal and a bucket we’re ready to go. But as soon as we get a turnover and a miss we’re just out of it. It’s a confidence thing.”
The Lady Cobras return to Appalachian Athletic Conference play tomorrow when they travel to Covenant College.
PIKEVILLE (78) – Mosley 4, Chandler 5, Wofford 2, Whitney Hogg 15, Potts 7, Daniels 6, Natiera Hinton 18, Daniel 5, Bailey 7, Johnson 1, Compton 8.
VI (47) – Odle 2, Nicole Collins 15, Autumn Arney 10, Whitaker 1, Grimm 3, Michelle Shockley 13, Arnold 1, Swift 2.
Pikeville 40 39–78
VI 28 19–47
3-point goals – PIK 6 (Hogg, Potts, Hinton 2, Daniel 1, Compton 1); VI 0.
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