By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
BUCKINGHAM – Fresh off a thrilling, emotional win over Cumberland on Thursday, Buckingham coach Russ Gowin was unsure of whether his team had anything left for its matchup against Randolph-Henry on Friday.
He had nothing to worry about.
The Knights, fueled by a second-half surge and stellar outing from Landon Allen, dispatched the Statesmen 70-54 to avenge an earlier loss against their James River District rivals and kept their perfect record at home intact.
“It was a huge win for us, coming off a wild win last night,” said Gowin, whose team improved to 7-0 at home. “I can’t say enough about Landon Allen who stepped in for us. He is usually the sixth man and went into the starting role tonight and had a career high.”
The teams kept it close the entire first half and were tied at 33 at halftime. But thanks in part to Allen, the Knights were able to build a lead on the visitors. The junior sharpshooter drained a pair of threes in the third quarter as Buckingham began to pull away. Allen, who started in place of injured center Kevin Bolden (ankle sprain), hit six 3-pointers, including four in the first half, on the night and led all scorers with 30 points. He also had seven rebounds.
“We felt good about it at halftime and we said to our kids at halftime, ‘To win this game we’ve got to focus on keeping Brian Jones in check.’ And in that third quarter we did a good job of limiting him to few shots,” Gowin said. “It was huge, that third quarter. We had some good defensive stops and made some good plays offensively and built that lead.”
The Knights (8-3, 3-1 JRD) clamped down and held Jones to a field goal in the third quarter. Buckingham outscored Randolph-Henry 20-10 in the frame and took a 53-43 lead by the end of the quarter. The Knights got a boost from Caleb White and Cam Johnson, who combined for 11 points during that stretch.
Buckingham kept that momentum going in the fourth, extending the lead to 13 with 5:16 to play. The Knights never looked back en route to the key win, which puts them in a tie with the Statesmen for the district lead.
“We knew if we went down against them 2-0, it was going to be a hard hole to climb out of,” White said. “We just kept fighting to get the win. We just had to go to the basket and scrap to get what we could. We were knocking down open shots and going to the basket.”
White and Johnson finished with 13 points apiece and Johnson grabbed 12 rebounds. Tarian Ayres chipped in eight points to go along with three steals.
For Randolph-Henry, Karey Jenkins had a team-high 17 points while Jones finished with 15.
Buckingham gets little time to rest as it continues its stretch of four games in six days on Monday at Amelia. The Knights are slated to visit another district foe, Central Lunenburg, on Tuesday.
