By Titus Mohler

The K-V Dispatch

The Central High School varsity girls basketball team went 2-1 last week, putting its overall record for the season at 7-7.

Though the Lady Chargers defeated visiting Goochland High School 40-22 on Jan. 4, the Lady Bulldogs turned the tables on Central on Friday, winning 44-22 at home.

“Goochland’s been playing really good defense of late,” Lady Chargers Head Coach Scott Wilson said. “They held Nottoway to 47 points recently, and came within five, so I knew going in we were going to have to be very smart in our selection of shots and be really patient. They’ve been playing really good zone defense and making teams take low percentage shots, and we fell right into their game plan.”

He noted that Central was impatient on offense, and the Lady Bulldogs were just not allowing any passes down low.

Despite her team’s struggles, senior guard Dominique Turman-Watson scored half of its points with 11, adding 10 rebounds.

“Night in and night out, she’s very consistent, providing us with double-doubles every game, and that’s big,” Wilson said. “I’ve been very pleased with Dominique’s performance throughout the whole season. Her consistent play has been tremendous.”

On Jan. 24, the Lady Chargers won 39-38 in an exciting game against host Bluestone High School.

“The game was tight all the way through,” Wilson said. “We led all the way until about 30 seconds left in the game.”

He said the Lady Barons hit two free throws to take a one-point lead, and then the ball went out of bounds a couple of times after that.

“So, I called a timeout, set up a sideline play, got the ball right at the sideline right below half court, and they just executed that play tremendously,” Wilson said. “(Brittany) Dolan got a beautiful pass to (TanJaNeKa) White-Freeman, who was wide open under the basket for her, and she put in the layup to take the lead.”

Central’s defense kept Bluestone from scoring in the remaining 12 seconds to seal the win.

The Lady Chargers opened up a 15-7 lead after the first quarter. Bluestone won the second quarter, 11-7, and the third quarter, 13-10, but a 7-7 draw in the fourth left them two points shy of the win.

White-Freeman, a senior guard, led Central with 17 points.

“What makes that even more impressive is that of our 17 second-half points, she scored 13 of them, so that was a big lift,” Wilson said. “(Turman-)Watson and (Ashley) Genova were big on the boards. They had double digits in rebounding.”

Genova, a senior forward, finished with 12 rebounds, and Turman-Watson had 11 boards, with six points.

“Our second-leading scorer for that game was (MyYonte’) Jennings,” Wilson said. “She had nine. She had three three-pointers in that contest.”

The Lady Chargers visited Amelia County High School on Tuesday for a regularly scheduled game, and they host the Lady Raiders on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a make-up game.

“Amelia’s well-coached, always well disciplined, always a solid team,” Wilson said Tuesday morning. “It should be a real competitive game. Bluestone did play them the other night. Bluestone came within five points on the road, so I’m expecting the next two games against Amelia, they’re going to be tight, so we’ve got to be ready to play and be very patient on offense, and that’s what we’ve worked on yesterday and on Friday.”