On Friday night, the Lee-Davis girls basketball team accomplished the unthinkable with a 39-34 win over host Atlee. Or at least it would have been a feat beyond belief prior to this season.

  Atlee has long been an established powerhouse program, not only in the county but throughout the Central Region. Meanwhile, Lee-Davis (10-10, 4-6 Capital) has resided at the opposite end of the spectrum, simply looking for any win. When the Confederates defeated the Raiders on Jan. 7 it was only their second win over Atlee (5-13, 2-8) in the past 19 years.

  And though Atlee has recently fallen on lean times, short-handed and injured, no Hanover County team has managed to beat the Raiders twice in one season- at least until Friday.

  That was when the perpetual underdog Lee-Davis program accomplished what no other county team could do.

  Senior Meredith Holmes has seen her fair share of hard times with the Confederates, which made the sweep of Atlee that much more special. “We only have three seniors but from the very beginning we’ve always worked well together,” she said. “We’ve bonded together and came out as the underdog at the beginning of the season and we got sick of that title so we decided we’re going to shake up this district and make a name for ourselves.”

  Lee-Davis head coach Alvin Puller, who should be in the running for Capital District Coach of the Year, has been around Hanover County basketball for a long time. So long in fact that he wondered if it was possible to build a winning program with the Confederates, let alone one that could knock off Atlee twice in one season.

  “I never thought that would happen,” he said, pointing out that he almost didn’t take the coaching job when it was offered to him prior to last season.
  “When the opportunity came for me to get the girls job I said I don’t want it,” he said. “But then all of a sudden I looked at those girls and said I had these girls at Stonewall and they did a great job at Stonewall why not grow with them and see what they can accomplish and they proved me right. I made a wise decision I think.”

  For their part, the Raiders put up a valiant effort. Though riddled with injuries, Atlee battled throughout and almost kept their image intact.

  Lee-Davis stormed out of the gate to score the game’s first six points and force a timeout from Atlee head coach Anna Prillaman.

  Coming out of the timeout, it was the Raiders who were on fire, defensively holding Lee-Davis without a score for nearly nine minutes of game time. Meanwhile Atlee went on a 17-0 run behind the shooting of Steph Staples (six points) and Karlie Suber (nine points). When Clarke Taylor scored on a putback with 5:27 left to play in the half, Atlee led 17-6 and appeared to be in complete control.

  But the Confederates fought back to trim the Raider lead to 20-14 heading into the locker room.

  In the second half, the Lee-Davis defense repeatedly disrupted Atlee’s attack. Junior Trina Gardner, who finished the game with 13 points, eight steals and seven assists, picked off passes left and right and appeared to deflect countless balls to teammates.

  “We tell her to play the passing lane because if you put her on the ball she tends to reach a little bit,” Puller said. “But if you get her off the ball and anticipate the passes she’ll do a great job because, the person with the ball, she can read their eyes and anticipate the pass and steal it.”

  As far as what it took to get the Lee-Davis offense going, Puller attributed that to his assistants. “To be completely honest with you, I was kind of ticked off at my post players because they weren’t getting the job done so I took them over to the side and talked to them,” he said. “My assistant coaches (Will Williams, Jana Estes and Kelsey Farmer) told them, I don’t what they told them, but whatever it was it worked. I give them credit. They talked to them and told them what we needed to get done to win the game and they came out and executed.”

  The already decimated Raiders suffered another scary moment in the opening minutes of the second half when Suber tripped and went sprawling on a drive to the basket. The sophomore standout, who is the one remaining player Atlee cannot afford to lose, lay motionless on the floor for some time before eventually being helped to her feet and the bench. Suber (16 points, 9 rebounds) returned to the game two minutes later and immediately added to the Raiders’ lead with three straight free throws.

  However, the Lee-Davis defense held Atlee scoreless over the final 4:10 of the period.

  Surprisingly, with team leaders Gardner and Logan Bryan on the bench, Lee-Davis continued to cut into the Atlee lead with scrappy freshmen Kerstin Winston running the point and Caroline Naumann (6 points, 11 rebounds) in the post.

  “She’s a fantastic go-getter,” Puller said of Winston. “When she played for me at Stonewall we called her Fireball because she’ll get in anybody’s face, she don’t care how big you are, or whatever better you have, she’ll get after you. She made a big difference at that point of the game.”

  Casey Price provided an offensive spark but the one player who gave the biggest boost without making a huge impact in the stat book was Holmes, who provided a solid, experienced presence in the post.

  “I try to be a leader and pick everybody up when they’re down,” she said. “I know it’s not all about stats so I try get to everybody and make sure everybody is doing their part on the team because everybody has one set role on the team and I feel like I’ve taken that role of keeping everybody up and just making everybody come together.”

  Holmes scored her only points of the contest on a turnaround with 6:22 to play, tying the game at 26 and the Confederates never trailed again.

  Defensively, the C-feds shut down Suber in the second half, limiting her to three points until she hit a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds to play. It was the only Atlee field goal in the final three minutes of the game as Lee-Davis sealed the win from the free throw line.

  “We know Karlie Suber is a fantastic player and she was doing whatever she wanted to,” Puller said. “We figure you take her out of the equation the ball game is ours so that’s what we did. We double-teamed her. We frustrated her and it made the difference in the ball game.”

  Likewise, Puller was extremely pleased with the complete team effort from his girls. “One individual can’t beat this team and I tell them all the time we’ve got to play together and win together so they do a great job,” he said. “We’re young and they’re energetic and we want to win.”

LEE-DAVIS (10-10, 4-6 Capital) — Winston 5, Holmes 6, Thomas 0, Bryan 3, Price 6, Boothe 0, Gardner 13, Naumann 6, Culver 0, Hughes 0. Totals 11 14-29 39.
ATLEE (5-13, 2-8) — Staples 9, Shelton 7, Tyler 2, Booth 0, Suber 16, Mullen 0. Totals 11 7-10 34.
Lee-Davis 6 8 8 17 — 39
Atlee 12 8 3 11 — 34
3-point goals — L: Naumann, Gardner, Winston; A: Suber 3, Staples, Shelton.