BUCKINGHAM – It wasn't pretty, but the Buckingham County High School girls basketball team managed to get a 39-35 victory over Nottoway on Wednesday night at the BCHS Gymnasium.

The Knights only trailed once in the contest, but looked for much of the second half to be hanging on for dear life against a deeper and more athletic Nottoway team.

Buckingham, however, found a second wind after the Cougars took their only lead of the game early in the fourth quarter, and was able to skate by with a four-point victory.

“A win is a win, and that's most important,” said BCHS head coach Ethan Abruzzo. “It seemed like we played most of the second half on their end of the court.

“We gave up too many rebounds and second shots, but were able to overcome all of that in the end.”

Buckingham trailed 29-28 with 6:42 left to play in the game, but retook the lead for good on a 15-foot jumper by Kristen Knowsley with 5:50 left.

Buckingham sophomore guard Tamara Haskins put the Knights up 33-29 with 3:45 left, but Nottoway scored four quick points to tie the contest at 33-apiece on a layup by Shamori Blackwell.

Following a made free throw by Chesnie Johnson, a stickback by BCHS sophomore Kristen Gough with 45 seconds left gave the Knights a 36-33 lead. Up 37-25, Gough scored on an inbounds pass from Johnson with just under 10 seconds left to seal the four-point victory.

“We're definitely going to have to play better than we did tonight, but it's good for us that we are able to get our first win out of the way,” said Abruzzo. “We had trouble handling their press, which led to too many turnovers, but as the game went on, we got better at breaking it. I'm happy with that.

“It's tough to replicate a press in practice, but we've got to prove that we can be effective at breaking it, otherwise, we're going to continue to see it.”

Buckingham was led by Gough, who scored a game-high 15 points, while Robyn Davis added 11 and Haskins scored nine. Nottoway was led by Blackwell, who scored eight points, while Danielle Jones scored six.

Buckingham played at Appomattox on Wednesday night, and fell 33-21, and was scheduled to travel to Randolph-Henry on Friday.

The Knights will step back out of district on Monday night to face Madison County on the road, before returning home next Tuesday, December 18, to host Central of Lunenburg.

“We have a good number of games before the break, and we know what we're going to have to work on,” said Abruzzo. “It's early in the season, but it's imperative that we work on and learn from our mistakes.”