Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor noted during the regular season that whenever the chips were down, someone on his team finds a way to rise to the occasion.
Wednesday night, the foul situation was not looking good. Both Daquan Jones and Maurice Jackson were saddled with three personals early and took to the bench, so Rickquan Jones took the wheel.
After a tightly contested first quarter against fifth seeded Orange County, the Black Knights turned up the tempo in the next three quarters, and the Jefferson District regular season champions earned a slot int the tournament title game with a 76-58 win over the Hornets.
“Early on, I thought we really had an advantage in the post,” Minor said. “So we were trying to get it to (Rickquan) inside on the post and he did a good job finishing and also was good rebounding.”
Charlottesville started the game with an 11-2 run, but a 12-4 run from Orange immediately followed, leaving the two squads just one point apart going into the second quarter. However, Jackson, Daquan Jones and Devin Turner put the Black Knights up by double-digits early in the second quarter.
“We stopped the penetration and started to box out,” Daquan Jones said. “That’s what got us the lead.”
Orange coach Keyode Rogers didn’t disagree.
“They simply out rebounded us,” Rogers said.
The foul trouble for Jones and Jackson kept the two on the bench for much of the second and third quarters, but with Rickquan Jones scoring underneath the basket and also hitting a 3-pointer and several mid-range shots, Charlottesville had no trouble keeping a reasonable distance from the Hornets.
“I want to be a versatile player so I don’t have a problem taking long range shots,” Rickquan Jones said. “But the layup is the higher percentage shot so I’m going to look for that if I can get it.”
Trailing by 17 to start the fourth quarter, Orange — which had enjoyed a hot shooting hand to start the game — finally started to get its offense flowing while also forcing Charlottesville into committing a handful of turnovers. As such, Tyler Seal and Josh Pugh were able to get the Hornets to within eight points of the lead with four minutes to play. But that was as close as they would get.
Jackson came back into the game late in the fourth quarter and went on a tear, pushing his team’s lead back to double digits and securing the win.
“You can’t make any mistakes against Charlottesville,” Rogers said. “That’s what happened in those spurts during the second and third quarters. And when they’ve got the lead, it’s hard to get over that hump.”
Seal led the way for Orange with 15 points. Pugh was close behind with 14 points, with Tres Winkler and Damien Milton each putting forth 12.
For the Black Knights, Jackson led all scorers with his 23-point evening. Daquan Jones poured in 13 points. Devin Turner finished with 12. Rickquan Jones also contributed 12 points and was the team’s leading rebounder with eight boards.
Charlottesville will face Western Albemarle in the JD championship game on Friday at 7;30 p.m. at Monticello. The Black Knights won both regular season contests against the Warriors.
Orange ends its season.
