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The Atlee girls’ varsity basketball team outscored their opponents 15-12 in the third quarter and would only have trailed Cosby in Wednesday’s Central Region final by three if the end of the game would have been halftime. But Cosby jumped out to a 36-18 lead in the first half en route to a 65-44 win.

The Central Region title match was bumped up two days due to Sunday’s snowstorm, and like the weather, Atlee came out cold in the first half, shooting just 38 percent from the floor and entering a scoring drought in the second quarter that spanned five minutes. However, momentum started to swing in the Lady Raiders’ favor with two minutes remaining until halftime.

Senior forward Richelle Price hit a jumper to end the drought and Taylor Henderson nailed an open three-pointer after the Cosby defense collapsed to the right on a swing pass. Price scored the final basket of the half to cut the deficit to 18, and the Lady Raiders tried to keep things going in their favor as they opened the second half with possession.

“I probably said some choice words to them at halftime that hopefully lit a fire under them, but I don’t know if we can play worse than we did in the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter,” Atlee head coach Anna Prillaman said. “It was bad. All the credit to Cosby in how they were playing and how they were getting hands all over, just getting a lot of deflections. They were on the floor, we weren’t. They were on the offensive boards, we weren’t, so it definitely attributed to how hard they were playing, but I also think from our perspective, we just couldn’t have played worse.”

Atlee came to life in the third quarter with Price picking up eight of her 19 points, but an aggressive defense quickly put the Lady Raiders into foul trouble. Price picked up her third foul midway into the quarter, and Sydney Henderson picked up her fourth with a minute left. Cosby lived on the foul line in the fourth quarter, picking up 11 of their 17 points from the charity stripe. Atlee committed 16 fouls in the half and were in the double bonus with 6:22 left in the game.

The Lady Raiders got some showy moves from guard Britt Hill in the post during the final period. A three pointer by Sydney Henderson gave Atlee some spark as well, but the team couldn’t claw back from the deficit.

Atlee was led by Price with 19 points and Hill with 11. Sydney Henderson led the defensive effort with six steals and four rebounds.

Cosby was led by Andrea Bertrand with 30 points including 12 from the free-throw line, Becca Wann with 17 points and Kelsey Conyers with 10. The team was without the services of standout, junior, forward Jazmin Pitts, who was out due to illness.

Atlee is on the road Saturday for a 6:15 p.m. match up with Northern Region winner Oakton, which is undefeated on the season.

“I don’t know much about Oakton,” Prillaman said. “All I know is they’re a darned good team, and they knocked off a really good T.C. Williams team, so it should be a tough match.”

Sara Page is sports editor for the Midlothian Exchange.