Purcellville, Va. — With district play officially underway, the girls basketball teams from Heritage and Loudoun Valley High Schools knew their Friday night matchup before a holiday weekend would establish the early front-runner in the Dulles District. While the Vikings starting forwards combined for 25 points and 20 rebounds, it was the total team effort by the Pride—who had nine different players score—that secured them the 68-41 win on January 17 in Purcellville.
“The fact that anybody can score is awesome,” Heritage head coach Tayler Cook said. “They’re a talented group, a very talented group.”
After both teams made a few trips up and down the court without success, Heritage opened the scoring when senior guard Rachel Stewart (14 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals) found junior forward Alyssa Stanford (14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) under the net for a couple baskets. Loudoun Valley junior forward Payton Mandichak (10 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks)—who turned in a near double-double—responded with a rebound and an assist to fellow junior forward Maggie Mills (15 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block)—who turned in the game’s only double-double—before recording another rebound and scoring a 3-pointer to give the Vikings their only lead of the night at 5-4.
From that point on, the Pride took control as junior point guard Riley Makitka (9 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 block) found Stewart, Stanford, and senior forward Kaitlyn Puzenski (7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block) to double up the score.
Loudoun Valley sophomore guard Jordan Phillips (9 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists) provided an answer late in the first quarter with back-to-back baskets to cut the deficit to one. But Makitka collected an offensive rebound for a putback as the buzzer sounded to put the Pride up 12-9 heading into the second quarter.
“I think it’s always easier to win games when everyone’s involved,” Stanford said. “All of us being friends off the court really helps on the court. When we’re on the court we’re all hyping each other up, we’re giving high-fives, and we’re sharing the ball, which is better for the entire team.”
While a couple free throws from Mills at the beginning of the second quarter brought the Vikings within one, it was all Heritage after that, as the Pride went on a 15-0 run and forced 12 Loudoun Valley turnovers en route to a 27-11 advantage. With contributions from five different players in the second quarter and assists on 21 of their 28 buckets throughout the night, Heritage spread the ball around and got the whole team involved in creating a cushion.
“Sometimes we overpass, and I think that’s our biggest problem when we don’t score. I thought we were turning down a lot of open shots in the first quarter. We were just throwing it to people when we were wide open, so we’re trying to limit that,” Cook said. “When the girls loosened up and just started shooting, good things happened, and they could see that. It just clicked, and that’s where the assists came instead of the turnovers.”
Before the half, Phillips found Mandichak for a two and then a three, but Heritage also scored a triple before time expired to make it 30-16 heading into the locker room.
Throughout the night, the Pride relied on their defense to make stops and force turnovers. A few times, the Vikings were caught double-teamed in a corner or along the sideline, and eventually Heritage came away with the ball. A big contributor to the Pride defense was sophomore guard Keira Stanford (2 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals), who focused on limiting Loudoun Valley junior point guard Alyssa Tribino.
“Playing with my sister is fun,” Alyssa Stanford said. “Last year, we were on the team together, but we didn’t get much playing time together. So this year, being on the floor, knowing each other, and helping each other with whatever we need is just really fun.”
“The girls have fully bought into our defensive principles now, and the way that all of them are playing defense saves us when we have quarters where we don’t score,” Cook said. “The fact that we can sit and guard enough to keep us in games is important down the stretch. We’re gonna run into games where we can’t score, so we just gotta stop them. Like Keira tonight: she didn’t score because they were in a triangle-and-two on the Stanford sisters, but I told her, ‘You did your job. Your job tonight was to guard, and then your job was to facilitate to open people.’ We just wanted to make it difficult, we wanted to keep it out of Tribino’s hands, and our guards did a really good job of pressuring the ball.”
Assisting on a couple buckets to Stewart, the younger Stanford contributed by collecting and distributing the ball, as the Pride recorded 6 of their 18 steals in the third quarter.
“I think defense is a big key for us,” Alyssa Stanford said. “A lot of times our offense gets going once we get the steals and push the floor. So we focus on playing hard defense, and then when the shot does go up, we turn and box out.”
Both Stewart and the elder Stanford scored 6 of their team-high 14 points in the third quarter, as the Pride offense found a rhythm that enabled them to score 22 points in the quarter. Using the same set play multiple times proved effective for Heritage, who led by as many as 33 at one point.
“A couple times the girls were looking at me on the court saying, ‘No, we think this set is working. Rachel is scoring off of it every time. We wanna stay in this set’,” Cook said. “It was Alyssa Stanford who was saying that and I was like, ‘That is an unselfish teammate.’That’s huge when you have somebody who can put the ball in the basket but she’s also focused on what is working for our team. As much as their unselfishness hurts us sometimes, it’s also the best part of their game. You can’t teach it, so we just try to give them sets that allow them to make and facilitate those plays.”
With the Vikings’ only offense coming from free throws from Mills and a basket apiece from Mills and Mandichak, Loudoun Valley was limited to just 9 points in the third quarter as the Heritage defense held strong with a 52-25 lead heading into the final frame.
“One thing we don’t have is size. We just wanted to make it as challenging as possible and box out every time,” Cook said. “We’re just not super big, and [Mills and Mandichak] are obviously two tall posts that you have to try to figure out a way to guard. So that was a big point of emphasis: they can’t get anything easy off a rebound because that’s where foul trouble comes into play, and I thought that we did a great job of that.”
Tribino (4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals) got more involved in the fourth quarter after converting on a couple steals, but the depth of the Heritage bench provided an answer to every counterattack and allowed them to maintain the lead and ride out the 68-41 victory.
“I think this is a big statement win,” Alyssa Stanford said. “We just need to continue with what we did tonight: hustling on everything and playing hard-nosed defense. That is what’s gonna win us games.”
Loudoun Valley (1-1, 7-4) will have an opportunity to bounce back when they travel to Tuscarora on January 22 before hosting Walkersville on January 23. Heritage (3-0, 11-3) will look to continue their 4-game win streak when they host Rock Ridge on January 22 then Broad Run on January 23.
“It’s mental right now, it’s just a confidence thing, honestly. Our biggest challenge this year is getting the girls to believe how good they are at basketball,” Cook said. “It’s amazing when you look at them and it’s obvious they’re so talented, but for whatever reason it just hasn’t connected in the past.”
“Our challenge down the stretch is going to be how do we handle big moments. We’ve been saying it in practice: ‘handle hard better’. That’s what we have to do; we have to handle hard better,” Cook said. “This is where we’re competing now, and these things matter, and it means something in the postseason. It’s different when you’re trying to teach the mental game. It’s been a challenge for me, and it’s part of why I took the job. It’s a different challenge. You don’t have to teach the skill, but you’re having to teach that mental piece of how to handle and how to prepare. But they’re doing well.”
Maya Lopez captured 75+ photos at the game!
Heritage Stats
Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
Alyssa Stanford | 14 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
Rachel Stewart | 14 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Riley Makitka | 9 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1-for-2 |
Kaitlyn Puzenski | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
Anna Egnotovich | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5-for-6 |
Julia Ehrmantraut | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Layan Alhadi | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
Kayden Hobbs | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2-for-4 |
Keira Stanford | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Cadence Holman | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Taniya Lewis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Myah Gross | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Totals | 68 | 33 | 21 | 18 | 3 | 9-for-16 |
Loudoun Valley Stats
Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
Maggie Mills | 15 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9-for-12 |
Payton Mandichak | 10 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0-for-0 |
Jordan Phillips | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Alyssa Tribino | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Mirren Boswell | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Anna Ramos | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Ava Cassella | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Audrey Kielhorn | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
Totals | 41 | 35 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 9-for-12 |