McCargo, Lady Comets, flying high


South Boston News

Matt McCargo is flying high, as he directs the Halifax County High School varsity girls to a deeper postseason run.

The varsity Comet girls’ basketball team repelled visiting Riverbend Tuesday night, 65-54, and now the Comets are headed for the Northwest regional semifinals Friday. HCHS will either meet no. 2 seed Heritage-Leesburg (at home) or a potent no. 1 seed, Forest Park, which was ranked ahead of HCHS in the state AP prep polls.

“I’m really, really happy … like Tony the Tiger, I feel great,” said McCargo, whose Comets are now 39-6 over the past two seasons.

McCargo and the Comet coaching staff made a series of key adjustments to keep Riverbend off balance.

One major change came midway through the second period.

“We switched the defense … we changed our defense so we could cover the perimeter a little bit better and also cover the corners. That seemed to work out pretty good,” said McCargo, who declined to get too specific.

“We made it in the second quarter and then another area broke down, so we had to go back to the defense we orginally started in. In the second half, we talked about it and the girls felt like that was the best defense to go with,” McCargo said.

The Lady Comets also talked about intensity in the second period.

“We had talked about picking up intensity, matching the other team (in that department). I think it started to kick in right there in the second quarter, after a time out. They just started (clicking); they got the momentum and they just rolled,” McCargo said.

HCHS won the third period, 20-16, after the Comets bought into the message McCargo was selling at the half.

“The third quarter, we told them in the locker room, the first couple of minutes of the third quarter would be the most important. We need to go out and take care of things .. We needed to make stops. …

“Then we realized we could push the ball against them and get easy layups,” McCargo said. HCHS generally worked well against the Riverbend press, although their were some miscues.

And Riverbend could not get a handle on Comet center Destiny Betts, who led all scorers with 18 points.

“They didn’t have any answer for Destiny,” McCargo said. “Throwing the ball into Destiny, and it just created driving lanes for Melyse (Brown).

It created open shots for Stephanie Carr and Jamilia Smith.

“Jamilia really attacked the rim well in the second half,” McCargo said.

HCHS was 17-for-32 at the foul line.

“The key to getting to the foul line … was Destiny. We knew they would have trouble (with her). She’s much bigger, much more agile inside, and with the presence of Shameika Canada down in there, they were scratching to go after all the offensive rebounds she got.

“Once they started backing down to help on (Canada), it created lanes for Melyse to drive. Once she attacked the rim, we got fouls and were ale to go to the line,” McCargo said.

HCHS also made its free throws down the stretch after struggling early at the foul line.

Riverbend tried some adjustments, too, but those didn’t work out.

Riverbend coach Grace Edmond said, “We started to make an adjustment back on our defense, partly through the second quarter. We probably should have gone man. We decided to go back, keep our 1-3-1 and go back into a zone a little bit more. And it was just hard to match up with their big girl (Destiny Betts). She had some awesome moves. She’s an excellent player, very athletic,” Edmond said.

Riverbend later tried to make a comeback by trying to work the ball inside. The Bears seemed to be on the verge of seizing the momentum in the third period, but turnovers and foul problems haunted Riverbend.

“We got a little sloppy. We were trying to tell the girls to settle it down on offense, reverse the ball a little bit more, and then wait for the open shot or drive to the basket. We were trying to get their defense to move and shift a little bit more. … We couldn’t finish,” Edmond said.

Riverbend also had to deal with rapidly creeping foul problems, especially late.

Overall, Riverbend also failed to match the consistency of its first period. HCHS trailed 17-14, but never found itself behind at the end of any other quarters.

“We can usually play four quarters like our first quarter. We got a little flustered in that second quarter and didn’t score as much. Once our defense falls apart, it seems like our offense goes right along with it,” Edmond said.

MOVING FORWARD: McCargo had no idea yesterday which team the Comets would get on Friday night. “There is no strategy this late in the year. Once we find out who our opponent’s going to be, we’ll see what they do well …

“We’re going to do the same thing rhat we’ve been doing all year. … like I told the girls, we’re going to do the same thing, we’rte just going to do it better.”

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