The Kenston Forest School varsity girls basketball team showed poise Friday night against visiting Virginia Homeschool to come away with a 51-50 victory.

“It was a very good game,” Lady Kavaliers Head Coach Jannon Coley said, giving credit to Virginia Homeschool for being a good team that was both quite strong and quite intense.

Kenston Forest trailed 12-11 after the first quarter, but it outscored its visitors 19-13 in the second quarter to take a 30-25 halftime lead.

Unfortunately, the Lady Kavaliers’ solid first-half play did not carry over coming out of the break.

“I don’t know if we were just tired, but we didn’t come out very strong in the third quarter, and that kind of brought them back into the game,” Coley said.

Virginia Homeschool won the period 18-6, but the Lady Kavs were able to turn the tables in the fourth quarter, winning the points battle 15-7.

Kenston Forest called timeouts in the waning moments and was able to hold on for the win.

“I just think that we didn’t give up,” Coley said. “In the timeouts that we had right there at the end, we just talked to them about not giving up and hanging in there, and they did. And they boxed out, and they just played great defense, and that’s pretty much what won the ballgame right there at the end.”

Junior Indigo Dougherty led Kenston Forest with 18 points to go with five rebounds and two assists.

Senior Savannah Gunn also had a strong night, contributing 17 points, seven boards, three steals and two assists.

Senior Mackenzie Coley added nine points, four rebounds and two assists, and junior Josie Epperson chipped in six points.

Playing in a Richmond Christmas tournament this weekend, Kenston Forest (5-2) faces Millwood School on Friday at 4:30 p.m.