Charlottesville’s boys basketball team ended its regular season with a flourish as it easily dispatched visiting Monticello on Friday night to claim a share of the Jefferson District regular season crown and extended its win streak to six games.
The Black Knights used a stifling defense to jumpstart their offense and rolled past the Mustangs 70-46.
CHS finished in a three-way tie for first place with Western Albemarle and Albemarle and will play the Warriors on Monday in the semifinals of the district tournament.
“I’m happy with this team tonight, they played very hard, were very aggressive and played smart,” Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor said. “I thought we played really good defense in the first quarter and we were unselfish and moved the ball really well. I think that’s what got us our lead early on.”
The Black Knights (14-4) broke to a 9-4 lead to open the game, then went on a 14-4 tear to take control by early in the second quarter.
Trailing 23-8, Monticello put together a run of its own just before halftime, cutting the deficit to six points on a 3-pointer by Josh Rush, who started the spurt with another shot from behind the arc. Rush scored nine of his 10 points in the quarter.
Murray Hill made a pair of free throws to give Charlottesville a 29-21 advantage at the break.
In the third, CHS quickly regained the momentum as Khalil Vest converted a basket underneath. Then Jaylen Hudson knocked down back-to-back threes and the rout was on.
The Black Knights continued with their frenetic pace, and after a quick steal and layup by Tyreek Ragland, held a 20-point lead again.
“Every time we play [Monticello] we want to get the win. It’s very intense out there,” said senior Caleb Gage, who finished with 15 points. “I think they cut into the lead because we got a little fatigued. They weren’t ready to go down. We’ve got to work on closing the games and not letting [teams] back in the game and we knew that coming into second half. So we said ‘let’s get focused,’ and turned it back up.”
The Mustangs cut the lead to 14 in the fourth, but were unable to get any closer, thanks to solid rebounding from Deandre Bryant, who was able to get six points off offensive putbacks in the frame.
Ragland added 15 points and Hudson reached double figures with 14.
Ukari Brooks led Monticello with 12 points, while Malik Barbour added eight.
“We came out with a sense of urgency and we talked about it [at halftime] and the guys stepped up and did a great job,” Minor said. “Defense is everything. I always say you can have a bad shooting night but you can never have a bad defensive night — the hustling and the rebounding and all the little things — that keeps you in the game.”
