The Matoaca Warriors had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 26 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Thursday. They took down Hopewell 61-44. This was payback for Matoaca, who suffered a 75-37 defeat the last time these two teams met.
Matoaca's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Sydney Richardson led the charge by scoring 21 points along with four steals. Richardson hasn't dropped below two steals for six straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Faith Brown, who scored 17 points along with six steals.
Despite the loss, Hopewell still got an impressive performance from Erin Edmonds, who scored 25 points along with seven rebounds and six steals. That was a full 56.8% of Hopewell's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Shakiya Lambert was another key contributor, scoring nine points along with two steals.
Even though they lost, Hopewell smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Matoaca only pulled down an offensive rebound.
Matoaca is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-8 record this season. As for Hopewell, their defeat dropped their record down to 15-3.
Matoaca will be playing at home against Thomas Dale at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday. One thing working in Thomas Dale's favor is that they have posted big point totals every time they've taken the court this season. As for Hopewell, they will head out on the road to face off against Petersburg at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Hopewell focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 26 on Thursday.
