Mount Vernon head coach Courtney Coffer and his team knew that their National District tournament semifinal with Hayfield would be a much different game from their opening round 76-7 blowout over Stuart. The game was both mentally and physically intense throughout, but the Majors came away with a 63-52 victory in the end.
“In the National District we battle,” Coffer said after the victory. “One thing about Hayfield is you know when you play them that you’re going to get a tough game. Those girls are going to come play, and they gave us all we could handle tonight.”
There were hard fouls on both sides, questionable calls throughout the game a mid-air collision that left Mount Vernon sophomore Tiffany Webster with a leg injury late in the second quarter that forced her to leave the game. She returned in the third quarter and kept up her defensive pressure on the Hayfield guards, finishing with eight points and five rebounds.
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“The whole first half we weren’t playing our style of defense,” Coffer said, also pointing out how Hayfield was able to get a lot of points in the paint in the first quarter. “Once we started to get those stops, it really allowed us to get our transition game going.”
Webster’s teammate and fellow sophomore Kelly Loftus had an excellent shooting night, finishing with four 3-pointers. Loftus’ intensity from the opening tip seemed to set the tone for her teammates and she led all scorers in the game with 22 points.
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Despite the Majors excellent job of collapsing on her defensively and constantly shadowing her with two and three players, Hayfield senior Shannen Cochraham finished the game with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
“Shannen is going to do wonderful things at Elon University next year,” Coffer said. “She’s a great player. That Hayfield team is going to surprise whoever they play in the first round of regionals. I honestly think that all of our National District teams can win in the first round of regionals.”
Hayfield will return home and await its first-round opponent in the Northern Region tournament. The Majors will move on to face Edison in the National District championship game Friday.
