'We've never been more ready': Buffalo Gap headed back to states with Wednesday night win
SWOOPE — Hannah Coffman remembers the pain from losing to Rappahannock County a year ago. Not once, but twice.
In last season's Region 1B championship, Buffalo Gap led Rappahannock County by 11 in the third quarter only to lose the game and have to go on the road for the state tournament. Then, in a rematch in the state semifinals, Gap led by 12 in the fourth quarter only to once again stumble, ending its season. Rappahannock County went on to win the state championship.
The two teams met again Wednesday night in the regional semifinals in a win-or-go-home game. Gap won, 45-35. Rappahannock County went home.
"Being able to beat them and make it back to states and have a chance to win the whole thing is really exciting," said Coffman, who finished with 12 points, 10 in the first half of Wednesday night's victory.
Buffalo Gap, the No. 2 seed in Region 1B, will now hit the road Friday to top-seed Brunswick, a 53-37 winner over William Campbell in the other semifinal. Brunswick enters the game unbeaten in 23 games. No matter what happens Friday, both teams will advance to the Class 1 state tournament.
On Wednesday, Buffalo Gap trailed just once, at 4-3, but an Avery Bradley 3-pointer with 5:17 left in the first quarter put the Bison in front to stay. Up 14-12 early in the second, Gap scored the next eight points, helped by a Bailey Talley 3, part of her game-high 16 points.
Gap stretched its lead to 15 early in the third quarter, but Rappahannock County wouldn't go away, cutting the lead to nine twice. The players couldn't help but think of last year and the way Gap lost big leads late.
"It definitely crossed my mind during the game," senior Chloe Emurian said. "We were up like this last year, but something just felt different about this year, our work ethic. We just really wanted it."
Talley, the team's senior point guard, talked to her teammates about making sure there was no repeat of 2023.
"Everybody in the locker room was like, 'This is ours,'" said Talley. "Then we went out and took it."
Emurian said losing wasn't an option this year.
The first time Rappahannock County cut the Gap lead to nine, Karah Richie hit two free throws to start a 6-2 spurt to end the third quarter. When it happened again, Talley scored her team's next three points on a free throw and layup after an intentional foul, to stretch Gap's lead back to 12 with 3:12 remaining. The Bison hung on from there.
Buffalo Gap coach Phillip Morgan said his team's first-half defense really set the tone for the night.
"We did a great job of keeping No. 12 for them (Summer Shackelford) under control. She didn't score in the first half," Morgan said. "I thought that was huge."
Shackelford, a 6-foot junior, did finally find the basket in the second half and ended up leading her team with 12 points, but she was never able to dominate like a year ago. Gap was also able to keep 5-9 sophomore Chloe Jenkins relatively quite with eight points. Last year, Jenkins scored that many in the fourth quarter alone as she and Shackelford scored the final 17 points for the Panthers in the state semifinal comeback.
Morgan said one of his defensive goals Wednesday was to collapse on Shackelford to keep her from getting easy buckets. That worked for the most part. The coach also gave credit to Emurian, who at 5-7, was undersized versus both of Rapphannock County's post players, yet held her own. As a team Gap got 16 offensive rebounds in the first half.
"Definitely it's not one-man job," Emurian said. "It takes everybody. Having everybody down there contributed to the win."
Avery Bradley agreed it was a team effort to clog up the paint.
"Because we were smaller we knew we probably didn't have the best chance against some of those tall posts," said Bradley. "But if we worked all together down in the paint we could do just as much as one big girl could do."
Gap knows how important winning the regional championship Friday will be, but for Wednesday night the team was just enjoying a win and a return trip to the state tournament.
"It means everything, especially being seniors," Bradley said. "This is our chance to go all out. We've worked so hard these four years and I feel like everything was leading up to this moment. We've never been more ready."
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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Buffalo Gap beats Rappahannock County to punch ticket to state tournament
