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Story by Dan Sousa
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Richmond (Mar. 14, 2009) - This season could have been a rebuilding year for the Loudoun County High School girls basketball team with a roster that included six new players and five freshmen, but the Raiders came together for a dominanting postseason run that culminated in the VHSL Division 4 state title Saturday with a 63-47 win over Turner Ashby and the Raiders, with only one senior, may have built the foundation for years to come.
The Raiders joined Dulles District rival Freedom, which captured a Division 3 state title on Saturday, as the only Loudoun teams to ever win a state basketball title in a history that dates back to 1915 in the Virginia High School League record books.
"The best basketball is played up in our place," said Raider coach Kevin Reed of the Dulles District double-double in the first year that the VHSL split the AA playoffs into two divisions.
Like the Raiders have done the entire postseason, they jumped on their opponent early and posted a big lead and never looked back. This time it was the Knights, who defeated LC back in December, facing a 15-4 deficit after the first quarter.
"We knew tonight we wanted to punch them in the gut and let them know this isn't the same team," said Reed.
Indeed, one aspect that the Knights didn't see in the 69-57 win over LC at the start of the season was the play of junior Alissa Kain, who seemed to get better with each passing playoff game. On Saturday she scored a game-high 23 points with eight rebounds and five assists. Kain had five points during the Raiders 13-0 run in the first quarter that left TA in a hole it would attempt to climb out of all night.
"I thought she was terrific tonight," said Turner Ashby coach Rob Lovell of Kain. "We just could not get her guarded ... she played a dynamite game."
Joining Kain was junior Kendra Holmes with another double with 15 rebounds and 13 points. Freshman Jenna Strange also had a big night, nearly a double-double with eight rebounds and seven points. Sharpshooting sophomore Brittany Batts was held to nine points but the Raiders didn't need any extra points from her as LC's defense was busy limiting TA to 28.2 percent shooting from the field including just 7 of 32 in the first half.
The Knights came into the contest with two career 1,000 point scorers to keep an eye on and Kirby Burkholder scored 20 before fouling out but JMU-bound Nikki Newman, one of the best players in Knights history, was held to seven points on 2 of 14 shooting.
Loudoun County just didn't win a state title, the Raiders rolled to a state title with margin of victories of 39, 32 and 16 in three games for a whopping average margin of victory of 29 points per game.
Turner Ashby's best stretch of the game put them within nine with three minutes to go in the first half but the Raiders finished on a 9-0 run, fueled by Kain, Strange, Holmes and senior Kerry Sarver to take a 35-18 lead into the half.
For Sarver, it was an emotional postgame press conference as she talked about finishing her hoops career with a state title and the feeling of winning back-to-back volleyball state titles as well, quite a feat.
"It's like the best feeling in the world. I don't want it to end," said Sarver, who was clutching hands with Batts on one side of Reed and Holmes and Kain were holding hands as well and all four players had tears in their eyes. "The saddest part is I'm not going to have practice on Monday."
Reed, who brought a team four years ago when Sarver was a freshman on varsity, to the state semifinals, talked about three phrases his team lives by, all being able to look at a teammate and say:
I love you. I believe in you. I trust you.
With everybody coming back but Sarver next season ... there could be a lot more love, belief and trust in Leesburg. The foundation has already been built.