Page County moves to 2-2; Combs and Hensley lead the way with 16 each
By Randy Arrington
SHENANDOAH, Dec. 12 — The Page County Panthers, like many teams, like to challenge themselves early on, playing “up” against tougher competition to prepare them for the tough district grind facing them after the holiday break. This season the Panthers have proven they can play with the top Class 3 competition in the Valley District — with all three games against Valley opponents so far being decided by one point.
On Dec. 1, Page County opened the season with a one-point loss on the road at Turner Ashby, 45-44, before defeating East Rockingham on the road three days later, 49-48. Both teams are expected to compete for a spot in the Valley District championship. On Friday night, the Panthers once again lost to the Knights by one point, 63-62 — this time on their home court, in overtime.
Thanks to a relentless, quick defense forcing turnovers, the Panthers are remaining competitive at a high level, despite playing tough teams and shooting well under 40 percent. PCHS head coach Tyler Parker says the pair of one-point losses to the undefeated Knights still stings, although he agrees that seeing his Class 2 program play well against a larger, tough program makes him feel good.
“Yeah it does to a certain extent,” Coach Parker said following Friday’s game. “We understand that they are pretty high favorite to win the Valley [District], but we also know that we’re a pretty heavy favorite to win the Bull Run, so we need to kind of protect the hype a little bit… and two times we let it slip away.”
On Friday night, Page County came out of the gate firing as senior Caden Combs opened up the scoring in the paint, followed by senior Dawson Richards hitting a bucket from beyond the arc to jump out to a 5-0 lead inside the first minute.
T.A. would answer back with 60-percent shooting from the floor inside the first frame, including a trio of triples — two from senior Solomon Shifflett. The 6’2″ shooting guard would end the night with a game-high 28 points, including nine in the third quarter and all six of T.A.’s points in overtime.
Despite five points from senior Isaac Foltz to close out the first quarter — including a shot at the buzzer — the Panthers trailed 17-15 after the first eight minutes. Other than three turnovers by Panthers (to none for the Knights) and scoring in streaks, the first period was played pretty evenly.
The second frame was a low-scoring, defensive struggle that saw the Knights turn the ball over six times and go 0-for-2 at the line. Page won the period 9-8 behind five points from senior Aaron Hensley. The cross country star hit a three-pointer after earlier stealing the ball and going the distance for a layup at the other end. Turner Ashby took a narrow 25-24 lead into the locker room after Page’s junior forward Drake Pettit hit a shot at the buzzer to close the first half.
Despite shooting poorly, the Panthers hit buckets at the right time, often as time was expiring to stay close in this game. However, it was the defense that kept T.A. scorers like Anthony Perez in check. Perez chalked up a game-high 23 points just two days earlier against Wilson Memorial. The Panthers held Perez to five points all night.
“We know that we are long and athletic and we try to use that to our advantage. We do preach pressure defense and try to hang our hat on that,” Coach Parker said. “We are not the greatest shooting team in the world right now, we’re still trying to get through our shooting lull, but we’re hanging our hat on defense and trying to get as many transition layups as we can, and not having to settle for so many outside shots right now.”
The Knights pulled ahead 42-37 in the third behind the strong play and nine points by Shifflett. The Knights went to the line four times and went 5-for-8. Page got eight points from Combs, including a triple.
“We had too many defensive breakdowns,” Coach Parker said of the second half, especially late in the game. “We know they have several guys that are threats scoring the ball and we let them get comfortable in certain situations, and just less communication on our end when there should have been more.”
T.A. junior Jayden Lacey hit three consecutive buckets, including two three-pointers, in the final frame to fuel a lead that grew to as much as eight. But Page kept pace and shrunk the deficit over the final four minutes. Hensley scored Page’s final six points in regulation with a traditional three-pointer at 1:14 to make it 56-54, followed by a three-pointer from way out to tie the game at 57-57 with 31 seconds on the clock. The Page defense held on to secure overtime.
Shifflett would score all six of T.A.’s points in overtime, including a 4-for-4 effort at the line. After a three-minute (0-4) drought in overtime, Combs stole the ball and drove the length of the court to score Page’s first points with only a minute left. Many times in the paint, Combs attacked the basket against multiple defenders and found a way to lead the Panthers with 16 points.
Richards hit a triple with 14 seconds left that brought Page within one. A stingy defense paid off once again as the Panthers got the ball back and put themselves in a position to win. However, the last-second shot by Hensley rimmed out, the buzzer sounded, and Page had lost its second barn burner to the Knights, 63-62.
Hensley finished the night tied with Combs for a team-high 16 points, followed by Foltz with 10 points and Richards with eight. Senior point guard Trenton Eppard, who had some key buckets in the fourth quarter, finished with six points.
In the shadow of Shifflett’s game-high 28 points, Lacey had 12, sophomore guard Harper Kauffman put up nine, and Perez posted five. Overall, the Knights shot nearly 49 percent from the floor, while going less 47 percent from the line. The Knights committed 11 turnovers total.
The Panthers committed nine turnovers and only shot 35 percent from the floor. Page hit 77 percent from the line. The home team hit five triples on the night, while visitors sunk eight shots from beyond the arc.
Next week, Page County (2-2) will complete a four-game home streak by hosting Harrisonburg on Monday, Dec. 15 and East Rockingham on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Both games are scheduled to tip-off at 7:30 p.m.
Undefeated Turner Ashby (4-0) will travel to Waynesboro at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night for a game rescheduled from Dec. 8. Then the Knights will host Harrisonburg at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
On Friday night at PCHS, the fourth quarter against T.A. is where Coach Parker found out that his team has some “fight in them.” The Panthers overcame a five-point deficit, went on a 20-15 run, and forced their first overtime of the season in front of a heated home crowd against a quality team.
“I was curious [this season] with a new group of guys, going from eight on the roster last year to 14 on the roster this year, what type of fight we would have,” Coach Parker said after the one-point loss. “That’s the talk in the locker room tonight… we were kinda proud of the fight back that we had right there…because the teams we had in the past would have laid down early in the third when we were down.
“So to be able to come back and fight and get it to overtime, really shows me, against a good team, that there’s some fight in this team.”
For schedules, rosters and results, check the Bull Run District website.
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