WILLIAMSBURG—The Isle of Wight Academy girls’ basketball team will move on to the semifinals of the Metro Athletic Conference Tournament after defeating Hampton Christian School 41-22 Thursday.

The Lady Chargers will play No. 2 seeded Portsmouth Christian at 7:30 tonight, Feb. 22, at Williamsburg Christian.

“The girls played an excellent defensive game,” said IWA Coach Chris Hooper. “Our goal was to get out of the gate early. (The) girls followed it perfectly, allowing some of our starters to sit in the second half because of the quick turnaround to the semifinal game.”

The Lady Chargers came into the tournament as the No. 3 seed with a 14-6 record in the conference. Hampton Christian was the No. 6 seed with a 6-9 conference record.

“It was one of our better passing games,” Hooper said. “We also stepped up and forced a lot of steals that turned into lay-ups.”

IWA had 15 steals in the first half and played man-to-man defense and a full-court press.

Leaders for the winners were sophomore Gabriella Hooper with 16 points and three steals. Sophomores Carson Saunders and Brooke Olsavicky added 6 points and three steals apiece.

“We need to focus on our execution tonight,” Hooper said. “We are pretty even with this team. We just need to keep them from shutting out our top scorer Gabriella.”