By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The Cosby girls’ basketball team found itself in unfamiliar territory during last Friday’s Dominion District Tournament final.

The team trailed third-ranked Huguenot by as much as six in the first half and led by only one at halftime.

But the Titans did what they do best in the third quarter. The team relaxed, hit a myriad of shots and pulled out a 60-40 win.

“We just weren’t playing like we usually do,” Cosby senior guard Andrea Bertrand said. “We came out and we weren’t ready. We weren’t playing good defense, we were rushing on offense and that’s what we were trying to focus on.”

The Titans put together a 22-point third quarter led by Bertrand, who went 8-of-10 from the floor all night. She turned a Pitts block into a short jumper from the right side to start the half and added six more to her totals before the third quarter finished. The prettiest shot came off a 3-2 fast break.

Becca Wann pulled down a defensive board and sent a long pass down the court to Jazmin Pitts on the left block. With one on-rushing defender, Pitts dumped the ball to Bertrand, who came in from the right side for the easy layup.

With their offense clearly clicking again, the defense also picked up. Cosby out-rebounded Huguenot 11-4 in the quarter.

“Pitts’ size, Becca Wann, they just took over,” Huguenot coach Bo Jones said. “In the third quarter we were outscored by 15 points. That was the biggest thing that hurt us – the third quarter.”

In the opening half, it was Huguenot that looked like the team to beat though.

A pair of layups late in the first quarter by Jazmyne Harvey put Huguenot up 8-5 as the Falcons got behind the speed of their three guards: Daeisha Brown, Trylanda Jennings and Ty Bender.

The trio danced around a half-court, man-to-man defense with the help of sophomore forward Jeanette Cousins. Guarded by Pitts, Cousins pulled the 6-1 blocker out of the middle with a cut to the top. Anticipating the pick, Cosby switched defenders leaving Pitts at the top and the post relatively unguarded for the six-foot Harvey and for Jennings. The pair combined for 13 of the Falcons 18 first-half points.

“That was the game plan – get the guards in the paint,” Jones said. “The game plan was just slow it down, attack when we can and get Pitts in foul trouble. The first half we did pretty much most of that. The third quarter, we just ran out of gas. Pitts didn’t have but three fouls. My two bigs had three and four, so I had to go small then back to big, and that hurt us a little.”

Cousins picked up her third foul one minute into the third quarter and her fourth two minutes later, which opened up the post for Cosby.

“They came defensively ready for us and … they took us out of our running game, but I feel like once we stepped up our defense and made some adjustments, I think things kind of started to fall into place,” Cosby head coach Rachel Mead said.

Pitts and Bertrand led Cosby with 19 points each. Pitts added 10 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. Wann contributed 12 points and 17 rebounds.

Jennings led Huguenot with 14.

Cosby hosted Varina in the first round of the Central Region Tournament Monday night while Huguenot took on Atlee. Final scores were not available by press time. Semifinal rounds begin tonight at the Siegel Center.

“We’ve just got to keep playing hard. That’s basically it,” Bertrand said. “Keep playing hard and just play as a team and keep fighting because now, from here on out, it’s lose and go home, so we’ve got to keep playing.”