CLINCHCO, Va. — It was all about defense in the Black Diamond District semifinals.
Offense was optional, and for long stretches, nonexistent.
Grundy survived for a 53-43 win over Twin Valley and will meet Honaker, which got by Haysi, 48-35 victory in Thursday’s opener.
Grundy never trailed in defeating a short-handed Panther squad for the third time in three meetings, but the Golden Wave struggled to put its Buchanan County rival away.
Morgan Hall scored 16 points in the first half when Grundy (20-4) managed to build a 26-16 lead. Hall finished with a double-double, adding 14 rebounds.
The Wave extended their margin to 14 before the Panthers, despite the absence of leading scorer Katelyn Jackson started chipping away at its deficit behind Brandi Rose, Kara Goodman and Lakin Keene.
“It seemed to be a long drawn-out night,” Grundy coach Craig Plymal said. “We played a lot of kids early, but we just couldn’t establish any sort of tempo the way we wanted.
“But give Twin Valley credit for that. They played good defense on us and they hit some big shots in the second half.”
Rose hit two of her three 3-pointers in the second half and Keene added one that got the Panthers (8-13) within 41-36 early in the final period.
But Twin Valley struggled to score the rest of the time, shooting just 28.1 percent (16-of-57) from the field overall.
“We can’t make shots in the paint,” Twin Valley coach Rick Goodman said. “We spend 45 minutes to an hour in practice on it and we do pretty well, then we can’t do it in a game.
“But give Grundy credit for a lot of that. They played pretty good defense in the post.”
Goodman finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double. Rose added 13 points and Keene finished with 10 points.
Krystal Cantrell notched four of her five steals in the first quarter to set the tone for Grundy defensively. The Golden Wave forced five turnovers before Twin Valley even got a shot at the start of the game, but only led 7-0.
Last year’s BDD co-Player of the Year as a freshman, Jackson remains sidelined by an ankle injury.
“She’s only about 75 percent,” Goodman said.


TWIN VALLEY (43)
Rose 4 2-2 13, Goodman 6 3-4 15, O’Quinn 0 0-1 0, Meadows 2 1-7 5, Keene 4 1-3 10, Daniels 0 0-0 0. Totals – 16 7-17 43.
GRUNDY (53)
Hall 7 8-10 23, Cantrell 2 4-6 8, Charles 2 0-0 5, Owens 1 2-2 4, Webb 2 0-0 5, Snead 0 1-2 1, Lane 1 5-6 7, Yates 0 0-0 0, Sperry 0 0-0 0 Kyle 0 0-0 0. Totals – 15 20-26 53.
Twin Valley............7 9 14 13 — 43
Grundy................ 14 12 12 15 — 53
3-point goals – TV 4 (Rose 3, Keene), Grundy 3 (Hall, Charles, Webb). Total fouls-TV 16, Grundy 19. Fouled out-none. Technicals-none.