Lady Panthers fall to Lady Senators in district semifinals

WAVERLY — This was one rollercoaster ride the Chesapeake Lady Panthers didn’t enjoy.

In a game that saw Chesapeake fall behind, battle back, fall further behind and then battle back some more, the Lady Panthers couldn’t catch the Portsmouth West Lady Senators and fell 48-37 in the Division 5 district semifinals on Saturday at Waverly’s Downtown Arena.

"I thought our effort across the board was pretty good today," said Chesapeake coach Chris Ball. "We had a lot of girls play a lot of minutes today. We were undersized but our effort was tremendous. But we missed too many shots and it felt like we just ran out of gas towards the end."

Except for a 2-2 tie at the start of the game, West led the entire game.

Abbey Isaacs scored with 4:19 left in the first half to get the Lady Panthers within 11-8. Macey Whisman scored with 1:51 on the clock to give West a 17-10 lead and a jumper by Whisman with 14 seconds left put the lead at 19-11.

But Isaacs hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the Lady Panthers were down 19-14 at the break.

Brayleigh Pistole sank two free throws at the 5:13 mark to put Wet up 27-16 and Whisman’s free throw with 30 seconds left opened up a 36-22 lead.

Isaacs scored from close range to make it 36-24 to end the third quarter.

Sara Dillon hit a trifecta with 6:16 to play that cut the deficit to 36-29, but the Lady Panthers (14-9) could get no closer the rest of the game.

"We got to a certain point where we had to try and speed them up and try some pressure. It didn't work at first, then all the sudden it did," said Ball. "I think we cut it to 6 or 7. But it seemed like we ran out of gas there at the end."

Isaacs closed out her outstanding career for Chesapeake with  a 25 points and 5 steals. Chloe Parrott had 5 rebounds and Ciera Nichols 4 steals.

Ball threw plenty of praise to Issacs afterwards for a phenomenal career and pointed out that team as a whole will return a lot of experience next season.

"Abbey has done a lot for us this year. Offensively, she scores the ball very well, inside, outside, post up. She plays very hard," said Ball. "There's a lot coming back and a lot of them got a lot of experience this year. So things look good for next year's team."

West (15-9) was led by Whisman with 25 points with Pistole scoring 13.

The Lady Senators play Fairland at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Waverly in the district finals.

Ports. West 8 11 17 12 = 48

Chesapeake 4 10 10 13 = 37

PORTSMOUTH WEST (15-9): Abby Buckner 0 0 0-0 0, Lauryn Trinidad 0 0 0-0 0, Kayla Throckmorton 0 0 0-0 0, Gracelynn Bigham 0 0 0-2 0, Brayleigh Pistole 5 0 3-4 13, Hailey Carver 3 0 2-2 8, Macey Whisman 7 0 11-13 25, Maddox Lawless 1 0 0-2 2. Totals: 16 0 16-23 48. Rebounds: (O-11, D-22) 33 (Pistole 8, Whisman 8, Lawless 7). Assists: 1 (Name xx). Steals: 9 (Pistole 4, Whisman 2). Blocks: 1 (Whisman). Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Bigham (4th, 1:10).

CHESAPEAKE (14-9): KJ Collins 0 0 0-2 0, Sara Dillon 0 1 0-0 3, Abbie Isaacs 5 1 12-13 25, Chloe Parrott 3 0 1-2 7, Abby Mitchell 1 0 0-2 3, Ciera Nichols 0 0 0-0 0, Hollie Moore 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 2 13-17 37. Rebounds: (O-6, D-14) 20 (Parrott 5, Collins 3, Issacs 3, Mitchell 3). Assists: 2 (Name xx). Steals: 9 (Issacs 5, Nichols 4). Blocks: None. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Parrott (4th, 2:55).