When she jogged back on defense, braids swinging against her back as she glanced up at the scoreboard, the Wolverines had a rare commodity: a double-digit lead in Vienna that would only balloon further behind her 27-point outburst.
“We shoot threes. We play fast. We stick to what we know,” Shores said. “And it worked pretty well.”
While coaches spout that baton-passing games occur in March, not December, the Wolverines (1-0) had the closest thing to one, handing the Warhawks (0-1) their first 20-plus-point loss against a fellow public school in almost five years.
“There’s a lot of expectation, but we have a lot of new players, and we heard we were going to get beat pretty bad, so this is a good start,” said Woodgrove senior Angelina Nice (11 points).
When Shores stepped into the Purcellville gym this past summer, she admitted to harboring some anxiety. The Stony Brook commit had transferred to Paul VI last fall after leading the Wolverines to a Class 5 state final appearance her sophomore year. She headed back to Woodgrove this year, citing family reasons.
The Wolverines, many of whom have played with Shores since elementary school (including Brown, her cousin, who finished with 15 points), welcomed her and immediately felt her work ethic raise the standard in practice. She and Nice (Radford), both Division I bound, had no trouble finding teammates in the Wolverines’ up-tempo offense.
“When I stepped on the floor, it was just like fourth grade again,” Shores said.
That permeated immediately Friday. From the Madison sideline, Coach Kirsten Stone told her players to play at their traditional slower pace. Woodgrove Coach Derek Fisher constantly beckoned his players to hurry up. Woodgrove pressed and sent double teams and waving arms in ballhandlers’ faces, forcing turnovers in the first quarter and riding Shores’s hot hand to a 32-22 halftime lead.
The Wolverines broke open the game in the third with a 14-2 run. They finished with 11 three-pointers and largely contained Madison outside of senior Stella Gougoufkas, who scored 23.