Heritage sweeps Harrisonburg in regional quarterfinals

Heritage demonstrated some mental toughness as the Pioneers swept visiting Harrisonburg, 76-68 in overtime in the boys’ game and 67-58 in the girls’ game in the Region III, Division 4, quarterfinals on Tuesday.

In the first game, the girls team trailed 20-14 with just under seven minutes to play in the first half when the Pioneers star player, Cameron Carter, got tangled up driving to the basket and slammed face-first into the court.

She stayed down for several minutes, and then sat on the Pioneers’ bench while trainers continued to evaluate her. She was eventually taken to the hospital. Carter was seen walking around the gym still in her uniform after the boys’ game. Though it is not known if she will be available to participate in tonight’s semifinals against Staunton River at Harrisonburg.

“We don’t know if (Carter) will be able to play,” Pioneers coach Tracie Hayes said. “She hit the side of her face when she got slammed down. They were checking the area around her eye. She was bleeding a little bit. She said she had a little bit of an headache, but that she wasn’t nauseous.

“I thought our kids really stepped up tonight (without Carter). Everyone played well tonight. It was a team effort. I asked our guards Kadijah Anderson and Chantel Colmore to really attack on offense. I’m just really proud of the girls.”

Anderson and Colmore tied with a team-high 17 points.

With 1:23 left and a 57-52 lead, Hayes turned to Amber Bryant to ice the game. Bryant went 6-for-6 from the foul line and the Pioneers went 10-for-10 to earn the victory.

Heritage (19-10) made 25 of 40 attempted free throws. They were just 5 of 16 in the first half, but made 18 of 21 in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve beaten Staunton River twice already this year,” Hayes said. “It’s hard to beat a good team three times. I wish we had another day to rest, but we don’t because of the snow.”

The boys game was close from the start. There were four ties and four lead changes in the fourth quarter. The Blue Streaks’ Salim Charles tied the game at 65 with 1:36 to play with a lay-up, but Heritage’s Justen Joyner sank a pair of free throws with 33.7 seconds to put the Pioneers up 67-65.

Harrisonburg got down deep into the paint again to Charles, who was fouled with 29.4 seconds left. Charles made both free throws to tie the game again.

Heritage tried to hold for a last shot, but turned it over to the Blue Streaks with 2.3 seconds left on a blocked shot. Harrisonburg’s shot from 10 feet behind the 3-point line at the buzzer came up short and the teams went into overtime.

In the overtime, the Pioneers outscored the Blue Streaks 9-1. Joyner got Heritage started with a steal and hit Jeremy Hill for an easy transition bucket. After a couple of missed shots and turnovers by both teams, Joyner came up with another steal and this time took it in for the basket himself to put Heritage up 71-67.

Harrisonburg missed a couple of more shots and resorted to fouling the Pioneers, who went 5 of 6 from the foul line over the last minute to secure the victory.

“I thought we showed a lot of mental toughness down the stretch,” Pioneers coach Dan Stephens said. “We made some great plays on the defensive end. Trey Grooms (who had three blocked shots in the last 60 seconds) blocked some shots and we got some key rebounds. We made the plays down the stretch and made the free throws.”

Joyner had 21 points. Jeremy Hill added 24 and Quinten Trent chipped in 11 points for Heritage. Charles finished with 22 points and Seth Kardos had a game-high 39, though he only scored four points after the third period.

The Pioneers (14-10) will face Broadway at Staunton River on Thursday at roughly 8 p.m.

“This is still a young team and I think we did some growing up tonight,” Stephens said. “Hopefully, this is the kind of win you can build off something off of. Hey, we are one win from the state tournament.”