Leesburg, Va. — After sweeping Lightridge High School at both of their previous regular season meetings, the Riverside High School girls basketball team earned the No. 2 seed and the bye in the first round of the Potomac District tournament despite both teams completing the regular season tied in the district standings. While it seemed as though the Lightning—who led for most of the game—would get their revenge during the district semifinal on February 19 in Leesburg, the Rams used a big fourth quarter to take the lead and seal the 51-43 win behind solid free throw shooting down the stretch.
“We came into this season looking like underdogs, and we really pushed our way through,” Riverside junior guard Maia Brown said. “We all really needed this, and I think our energy was through the roof tonight, so it was really amazing to get the win.”
After a couple minutes of unsuccessful attempts and turnovers as both teams settled in, Lightridge junior guard Jalyn Childress (8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) opened the scoring with a three pointer. A few minutes later sophomore forward Ella Kalinsky (5 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists) found sophomore guard Gabby Dillard (12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists) inside for two. Then a few minutes after that, Childress hit her second three pointer on another assist from Kalinsky to put the Lightning up 8-0.
“In the beginning, we were a little bit frazzled,” Brown said. “After a few minutes we got into a timeout and said, ‘We need to pull ourselves together. We gotta get back out there and really do this.’ And we did.”
The Rams finally broke the Lightridge run with two minutes left in the quarter when Brown (22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block) found her way to the basket and senior guard Breanne Blubaugh (12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist) connected on a three pointer. The teams then traded buckets to close the quarter with the Lightning up 12-9.
“We just kept that focused mentality. We always talk as a team that they’re gonna throw punches, and we’re gonna have to throw them back,” Riverside head coach Sarah Wetmore said. “You have to fail in order to succeed, and that’s a message that we preach all along. We’re gonna miss shots, we’re gonna have turnovers. It’s about how much of a short-term memory you’ve got and if you can keep rolling. And that’s our mantra. It doesn’t matter if we’re down by eight, down by ten, we’re gonna keep chomping at it and try to get back in it, and that’s what happened to our benefit tonight.”
Dillard came alive after the break, scoring 8 of her team-high 12 points in the second quarter. Lightridge junior forward Riley Thomas (6 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist) also got involved in the action, recording 4 points and 3 rebounds in the stretch.
But a handful of Brown free throws, another Blubaugh triple, and a three pointer from Brown brought Riverside within 1 halfway through the quarter.
“We executed really well, and I think the excitement started to build,” Brown said. “Once our free throws started hitting and once we started making our shots, we built each other up, and the energy was amazing.”
Although the Lightning connected on their next two possessions, Brown—who recorded 13 of her game-high 22 points and half of her rebounds in the second quarter—made back-to-back threes to give the Rams their first lead of the night at 25-24.
“Every game Maia gets a little bit more confident. She is our floor general, and she just keeps on rolling with it, and the girls trust her,” Wetmore said. “But I think as a whole, it can be anybody’s game any night. It’s really fun to see the girls understand that we don’t have to have just one dominant scorer. We can share the ball, and I think it starts with Maia. She really gets out there and leads the way with that.”
Lightridge closed out the quarter with a Dillard basket to put the Lightning back up 26-25 heading into the locker room. Then out of halftime, it was junior forward Molly Bollhorst (10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals) who was the star for the Lightning, scoring 8 of her 10 points—including three baskets on a 6-0 run to start the third quarter. Kalinsky also chipped in with 5 of her game-high 13 rebounds in the third.
After that, Riverside picked up the defense, as senior forward Sam Wiles (6 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 block) snagged a couple steals—one of which junior guard Olivia Carlone (6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal) capitalized on—and focused on shutting down Childress.
“We put a little length on Childress in the second half, putting Sam out on her,” Wetmore said. “Sam is a pretty athletic lacrosse player, and we asked her if she could do it, and she was up to the challenge, in hopes of limiting the vision that Childress had to shoot. Getting that length on her really helped us slow her down. She’s still a phenomenal player, and everything is run through her. So we knew if we could tame her a little bit, then we’d be alright.”
Childress made it to the basket once more, but a three pointer from Wiles and a free throw from Brown cut the Lightning lead to 36-34 and gave the Rams all the momentum heading into the final frame.
“We talk as a team all the time about just winning the quarter. We reset in our own heads 0-0 for every quarter, and that keeps us going,” Wetmore said. “So we just talked about one basket at a time, one stop at a time, and these ladies don’t quit. My girls just have fire in them, and they want to keep going and keep playing. So that’s really what it was.”
Wiles connected on a free throw, and Blubaugh sank a three to give Riverside its first lead since right before halftime. Although the lead teetered back-and-forth a few times during the initial stretch of the quarter, Blubaugh hit her fourth three of the night to put the Rams up 45-43, and it was all Riverside after that.
The majority of Riverside’s points in the fourth quarter came from free throws, as the Rams shot 75% from the charity stripe. Brown and Carlone came up big with free throws down the stretch to secure the 51-43 victory.
“We’ve been on a winning streak, so we have to have the same energy going into Friday,” Brown said. “It’s just a mental game, really. We gotta keep our energy up, and we have all of the tools. We’ve worked so hard this season, and I think that it’s just about making sure that we’re all mentally okay, we’re ready, block everything else out from this season, and just play our game and do our best.”
With the win, No. 2 Riverside (6-4, 11-9) moves on to the Potomac District tournament championship on February 21 to battle No. 1 Potomac Falls, a 45-28 winner over Briar Woods. Despite the loss, Lightridge (6-4, 16-8) will move on to the VHSL Region 5D tournament and face the loser of the Potomac District championship game on February 24.
“We’re gonna go watch a little film, and we’re gonna game-plan tomorrow and see what we can put on Potomac Falls,” Wetmore said. “They beat us twice during the season, and we feel that they are reachable for sure. Top to bottom, this whole district is pretty competitive and even, so it could be anybody’s night. We’ll see what happens on Friday night. We’re excited for the opportunity.”
Derrick Jerry captured 75+ photos at the game!
Riverside Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Maia Brown | 22 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9-for-12 |
| Breanne Blubaugh | 12 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Olivia Carlone | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Sam Wiles | 6 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3-for-4 |
| Riley Brown | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-for-1 |
| Kadence Loucks | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Lyla Hobiena | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 51 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 15-for-21 |
Lightridge Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Gabrielle Dillard | 12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Molly Bollhorst | 10 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Jalyn Childress | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Riley Thomas | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Ella Kalinsky | 5 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-1 |
| Gaby Garcia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Mikayla Bowe | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 43 | 33 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0-for-5 |