Tuesday night provided exciting action around the Virginia girls basketball landscape, including state tournament bids from William Fleming, Chatham and Liberty.
William Fleming coach Richard Wilson, who was named the Blue Ridge District Coach of the Year, had the Lady Colonels firing on all cylinders with a 67-32 win, returning them to the state tournament, where they were state runners up last season.
“They’ve all been here before,“ said Wilson. ”We’ve been blessed to qualify for the state, what, three? Maybe three or four years now. So they understand the process, they understand the grind, and they know each and every level that we tap into is going to get a little tougher.”
The Lady Colonels will play at Glen Allen on Friday in the region final.
Over at Franklin County High School, a doubleheader between undefeated Chatham and Radford, followed by Floyd County and Liberty.
Chatham continued their spotless season with a 64-44 win over Radford despite neither team scoring for the first five minutes of the game.
Chatham heads to the state tournament just two years removed from a 11-12 season, and the win was thanks to some big time play in the paint.
“We knew coming into tonight that we needed to pound the ball into the paint, we have some really good post players and we knew we had a size advantage,” said Lauren French, Chatham’s head coach. “So we had practiced pounding the ball into the paint and our post players knocked it down like they were supposed to.”
Liberty and Floyd County took the court afterwards, and thanks to the help of double-digit points in each quarter from the Minutemen, Shania Brown and company are heading to the state tournament.
Liberty and Chatham will meet on Friday night at 6 p.m. at Franklin County High School.