GW girls clobber Magna Vista, gain momentum heading into Western Valley District tournament

There wasn’t a better remedy for the George Washington girls basketball team to get rid of the bitter taste of a home loss than a convincing victory Thursday night in front of the home crowd.

The Eagles righted themselves entering a week-long break into the Western Valley District tournament with a 66-21 clobbering of Magna Vista in GW’s regular season finale.

GW (14-5) enters the district tournament as the No. 3 seed and will play at either Franklin County or William Fleming on Feb. 9. Both the Eagles and Colonels have one district contest remaining and if both remained tie atop the district standings, the teams will have a one-game playoff to determine which team gets the district’s top seed and automatic berth into the Northwest Region tournament.

“We’ll take what we’ve got. Last year, we were 0-8 in the district and this year we’re 5-3 and we’re one game from tying for first place. Give all that credit to our kids, they worked extremely hard. Great group of kids, they’re really young and they work really hard,” GW coach Wayne Shelton said. “ … We’ll be ready Thursday for whoever we play. I know our kids will play hard.”

GW played its entire roster — expanded to 15 players after two players from the junior varsity team were called up — and everyone contributed. The bench scored 35 points to help out a starting lineup (31 points) that got a bit of a rest against an overmatched Magna Vista (5-10) squad.

“It gives us as a team more confidence to play as a team and win the game,” GW sophomore forward Bri Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald scored 10 points. “We know that if one person gets tired on the floor or whatnot, we have a bench we can turn to that knows how to play team ball and knows how to play defense and score.”

Brittany Hightower added 10 points and Courtney Martin scored eight points off the bench. The Eagles used a suffocating pressure and strong half-court defense to runaway with the contest, which mirrored the team’s victories throughout the season and eliminated the sour taste of losing to Patrick Henry at home Tuesday.

“Any time you play as well as we did tonight, it’s got to help your confidence,” Shelton said. “Our kids have shown a lot of character all year. We’re extremely young and we’ve won a lot of big games. We’re in a pretty good position. We’re disappointed of course that we didn’t finish tied for first, but I think the other night that you have to give PH a lot of credit. They played extremely well.”

With the Northwest Region tournament expanding to 12 teams, the top three teams from each district advance to regional play. GW’s objective over the next week of practice is to be as prepared as possible to win on the road and stamp its ticket into the next round of postseason play.

“We’ve got to get to the regionals. That’s been our objective since the season started,” Shelton said. “We want to get to the regionals.”

GW 66, Magna Vista 21

MAGNA VISTA (5-10)

Pritchett 1 0-0 2, Taylor 4 1-1 10, Warner 1 4-8 6, Wilson 1 0-2 2, T. Hairston 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 1-2 1, B. Hairston 0 0-0 0, Hightower 0 0-2 0, J. Hairston 0 0-0 0, Dillard 0 0-0 0, Nolen 0 0-0 0, M. Hairston 0 0-4 0, Thompson 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 6-19 21.

GEORGE WASHINGTON (14-5)

Wilson 2 0-0 4, Goods 1 3-4 5, Linder 3 0-0 6, Fitzgerald 3 4-7 10, Pinkney 2 2-2 6, England 2 1-2 5, Dillard 2 0-0 2, Thompson 0 0-1 0, Martin 2 3-3 8, Hightower 5 0-0 10, Jones 2 0-1 4, Thacker 0 1-2 1, Dabney 1 2-2 4, Allen 0 1-2 1, Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 17-26 66.

Magna Vista               5   5   9   2 — 21

George Washington 15 21 16 14 — 66

3-Point Goals — Magna Vista 1 (Taylor), GW 1 (Martin). Fouled Out — None.