There are probably time North Hagerstown girls basketball coach Charles Burnett wishes he had a few extra Anna Chamberlains on his team.
There’s only one, but the senior makes it feel like there are a few clones running around.
“She’s a Swiss Army knife,” Burnett said. “She’s versatile, she gets into the middle, she can take a little jump shot or makes make things happen. She’s a duo sports athlete. She’s probably in the best shape of anyone on the team.”
That versatility made all the difference in the world for the Hubs on Wednesday in a 46-36 victory over South Hagerstown in the first of two Hub City battles this week. The two teams will meet again on Friday.
Chamberlain scored a game-high 17 points while playing the role of North’s catalyst in the second quarter. She set up at the foul line and acted as the needed trigger of the offense.
“We made some adjustments,” Burnett said. “They played a 1-2-2 (zone), so we put Anna in the middle. We simplified. Instead of shooting from the outside, we got to get in in the middle. We got easy shots, putbacks and got a couple buckets of transition. We just simplify the game.”
It ignited the Hubs in the second quarter after struggling to only trail by 9-7 after the first eight minutes, with Chamberlain scoring six of them.
Chamberlain, who is also a state qualifier on North’s indoor track team, ran a few laps in the second quarter as the Hubs outscored North 15-2 in the second quarter for a 22-11 lead at the half.
She scored five points for 11 in the half and added some rebounding and some passed to set up shots for others. Eden Shupp, who only scored three foul shots in the first half, got a number of the passes that helped ignite North’s offense.
The youthful Rebels had problems dealing with North’s change in tactics and got away from their game.
“I’m just over here praying hard,” said South coach Kevin Meredith. “We stopped doing what makes us successful. We stopped our defensive rotation. So, it wasn’t that any one girl was killing us, but if we were where we were supposed to be, we could have contested that.
“We have a tendency to kind of, the proverbial shoot ourselves in the foot, sometimes. I’m not talking negatively about us, though. I got to get better. I’ve got to find a way to help us to overcome that.”
But both teams seemed to suffer in the first quarter with the rough start.
I think it was nerves,” Burnett said. “You know, it’s the North-South game. It’s big because it’s the local city rivalry. They are all friends playing in a big rivalry. Each year, you can throw the records out but you still want to beat your crosstown rival. We calmed down a little bit and we simplified.”
North expanded its lead to 42-22 – it’s largest of the game – by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Peyton Schnebly hit converted three foul shots at 7:23 of the final period to secured the 20-point advantage.
South began a turnaround from there, scoring 14 of the next 16 points to move within 44-36 with 2:04 remaining after a Kristen Gyamfi foul shot. Khloe Terralonge led the comeback effort with eight points, including a pair of 3s.
“We went with the younger girls,” Meredith said. “The young girl, Khloe, got in foul trouble and having her out for about half the game was painful She went on a little run herself and she’s a phenomenal defender, but she’s young.
“Most recently, it’s been that combination of either we get the young girls playing hard or the older girls playing with more savvy. If we can get the two together. …”
There was only one more basket scored in the game and it came from Shupp with 1:10 remaining to seal the 10-point victory and move to 6-12 on the season.
Schnebly and Shupp followed Chamberlain in the scorebook with 10 points each.
Terralonge led South with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Gyamfi added nine. Aniyah Freeman, the Rebels leading scorer, only managed three points – all on free throws.
Diamond Lloyd also had six points for South.
“I love the girls,” Meredith said. “It’s painful for them to keep losing, especially in contests where we have an opportunity to win. But North took advantage of what we gave them, and they deserve to win based on that.”
