G.W. Danville girls give Franklin County an icy reception

By JASON WOLF
Danville Register & Bee
Published: February 22, 2008

Wayne Shelton peeked into the locker room, hiding behind the door as it slowly opened inward. He knew what was coming. Everyone else did, too.

But no matter how hard the coach tried, he couldn’t avoid the rush of players and their big bucket of icy water.

The George Washington girls danced off the court with a pair of trophies after their 71-43 victory against Franklin County on Thursday night in Danville - one for winning the regular-season Western Valley District championship, their 13th in 14 years, and one for dropping Franklin County for the district tournament title, as well.

“It’s really great for our senior year. It’s exciting,” Erica Warren said after pouring in a game-high 25 points. “It’s fun winning championships year after year.”

GW (20-5) hosts the North Stafford-Albemarle winner in the first round of the Northwest Region playoffs at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a matchup that was assured before its rout of Franklin County (13-11). North Stafford’s game against Albemarle on Thursday night was postponed.

Narcissa Grayson left her hand raised, smiled and nodded her head as she sunk in the first true dagger against Franklin County, draining a long 3-pointer as time expired in the first quarter. She more or less finished the job midway through the fourth quarter too, stealing the ball at midcourt and cruising in for an uncontested layup - and a 30-point lead. Nobody even chased her.

“Yeah, pretty much,” she said, agreeing that it seemed Franklin County had given up. “I knew nobody was going to come after me, so I just ran with it, took my time and made the layup like Coach told me to.”

Franklin County hit just two field goals through the first 12½ minutes of the game as GW built a 22-7 advantage. And though the visitors managed to put up 10 points in the final 3½ minutes of the half, they were still outscored over that span.

GW took a 33-17 lead into intermission and rattled off a 12-0 run early in the third quarter to expand its lead to 27 points. Franklin County was able to slightly cut into its deficit before Grayson capped an 8-0 GW run with her uncontested steal and layup in the fourth.

Grayson scored 13 points, Tiffany Houston added 12, Jasmine Hairson finished with 10 and Tia Chattin grabbed 12 rebounds.

Chelsea Holland paced Franklin County with 12 points.

“This team has been incredible,” Shelton said - before taking his icy bath. “We were 7-4 and now we’re 20-5… We’ve just come so far.

“We just have to get ready for Tuesday. It’s not over yet.”

Contact Jason Wolf at or (434) 791-7996.