Leesburg, Va. — There are a lot of cliches about defense: ‘defense wins championships’, ‘it all starts on defense’, ‘the best defense is a good offense’. And for the Heritage High School girls basketball team, all those cliches ring true.
So when the Pride hosted their rival Loudoun County High School in a VHSL Region 4C semifinal, they knew they wanted to extend their pressure on defense and score in transition. It didn’t take long for that gameplan to work as the Pride forced 17 first-half turnovers, jumping out to a commanding 27-6 lead at the half.
With their defense in full swing, Heritage junior shooting guard Julia Ehrmantraut (20 points) caught fire, scoring a game-high 20 points off the bench, connecting on six three pointers, as the Pride cruised past the Captains, 67-37, on February 25 in Leesburg.
“We knew they were going to scout us well and we knew we scouted them well, so it was just about execution,” Heritage head coach Tayler Cook said. “We were trying to convince them it’s a lot easier to score against a zone if you can get a steal and score in transition, rather than trying to score in the halfcourt.”
Early steals by senior forward Rachel Stewart (4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks), junior point guard Riley Makitka (2 rebounds, 4 assists, 6 steals), and sophomore guard Keira Stanford (7 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) led to a 7-0 run to open the game on two baskets by junior forward Alyssa Stanford (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) and a three by senior forward Kaitlyn Puzenski (15 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals). An offensive rebound and putback by Puzenski extended the Heritage lead to 9-1 late in the first quarter.
Puzenski further extended the Pride lead early in the second, burying another three from the top of the arc.
“Kaitlyn played phenomenal all night long. She was a beast on the boards, she was everywhere defensively,” Cook said. “At one point she looked exhausted, but she kept telling us she was good to go.”
After the Puzenski three, Ehrmantraut—who led all scorers despite not subbing in until the second quarter—knocked down her first triple of the game early in the second quarter, ballooning the Pride lead to 15-2.
“The most dangerous part about our team is you can put in any game plan you want, any junk defenses, but we truly are so well balanced,” Cook said. “Julia was the second girl off the bench tonight and led all scorers. When you can go that deep and still get that level of production, it causes problems for other teams.”
As the threes continued to fall of the Pride, their defensive intensity never wavered as they held the Captains without a field goal until the 5:15 mark in the second quarter when freshman forward Sami White (9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) scored on a layup.
After a missed three on the next possession, Ehrmantraut responded with her second three of the night late in the second quarter, sparking a 9-0 run to close the first half.
“Shooting for me has always been about confidence,” Ehrmantraut said. “Once I started hitting, my confidence went up and my teammates started hyping me up, so I just kept shooting.”
Needing a spark to mount a comeback, Loudoun County senior guard Sharon Manni scored a basket on the Captains’ second possession of the second half, but the Pride responded right away on an assist from Alyssa Stanford to her sister. Then, the elder Stanford scored on an and-one off a dime from Puzenski to increase the Pride lead to 32-8.
Loudoun County senior forward Esther Paul (14 points, 4 rebounds) wasn’t ready to go down without a fight, sandwiching another Alyssa Stanford bucket in between a pair of three pointers to cut the deficit to 34-14.
Heritage, however, responded with some threes of their own as Puzenski, Keira Stanford, and Ehrmantraut connected from beyond the arc on back-to-back-to-back trips, re-extending the Heritage lead to 43-14.
After trading baskets late in the third, Ehrmantraut really caught fire, going on a 8-0 run of her own—including her fourth and fifth threes of the night—to close the third quarter leading 53-16.
“Julia shot phenomenally well. It’s all about confidence, so I hope the shooting tonight helps convince everyone, but especially her, to just keep shooting the ball,” Cook said. “[The coaches] have all the confidence in the world in our team, we just need the girls to believe it themselves.”
Ehrmantraut knocked down one more three early in the fourth quarter before the Pride emptied their bench to give some younger girls some important playoff experience.
“When our team is hyped up, that’s when we play better on the court,” Ehrmantraut said. “We just need to bring that energy level to the region championship and states.”
With the win, Heritage (8-0, 21-3) has punched its ticket to the VHSL Class 4 State tournament and will travel to Woodgrove (8-0, 19-7)—who avenged its most recent loss to rival Loudoun Valley—for the VHSL Region 4C championship game on February 27.
“It’s great for Heritage athletics as a whole,” Cook said. “We’re seeing more and more people excited about coming to games and supporting us. And every night they leave impressed, which is what we need to do to build a solid culture.”
Maya Lopez captured 125+ photos at the game!
Heritage Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Julia Ehrmantraut | 20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Kaitlyn Puzenski | 15 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Alyssa Stanford | 13 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1-for-1 |
| Keira Stanford | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Taniya Lewis | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Layan Alhadi | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Myah Gross | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Brooke Gallagher | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Riley Makitka | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1-for-4 |
| Rachel Stewart | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0-for-0 |
| Anna Egnotovich | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Cadence Holman | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Amaeya Trotter | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 67 | 32 | 20 | 13 | 3 | 3-for-11 |
Loudoun County Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Esther Paul | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Sami White | 9 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3-for-5 |
| Kristin Henly | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Elena Ward | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Zoe Ward | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Sharon Manni | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Sammy Boyers | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Olivia Eastlake | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Emily Oates | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Madison Karschner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Claire Engelberger | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 37 | 25 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 7-for-11 |