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Late surge powers Western Albemarle

By Bart Isley/Scrimmageplay.com

One thing is for sure — Dante Crawford can make outlet passes.

The good thing for Western Albemarle is that he can come up with blocks and rebounds too — and the combination turned into a 58-52 victory over Heritage in the Daily Progress/NBC29 Holiday Classic.

“I thought the two or three stops right at the end that we had to get he almost got them single handedly,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “He was a huge part of the end of that game.”

After teammate Christian Pierce hit a pair of big buckets to knot the game at 52-52 with just about a minute to play, Crawford snagged a big board on the other end and looked upcourt. While Western hasn’t gotten a chance to practice much of late because of inclement weather, when they have gotten a chance, pushing the ball has been a point of emphasis.

“We worked on pushing the ball because we haven’t been doing it that much,” Crawford said. “We really worked on that.”

So when the senior forward glanced up the floor, he saw sophomore Travis Hester streaking past the halfcourt line. Hester snagged the pass and knocked down a layup to give the Warriors a two-point advantage. Crawford followed that with a block on the other end, collected the rebound, and then, in a near-mirror image of the earlier play, hit Hester again. This time Hester hit the shot and drew a foul. He missed the free throw, but Crawford came up with a putback to give Western the decisive 58-52 advantage.

Crawford finished with 15 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks on the night, including two dunks, one an authoritative slam off a Cody Davis pass on a fastbreak. Pierce was also solid, hitting the clutch buckets as part of his 19-point, 10-rebound effort. Hester buried 15 points.

It didn’t take long for the game to unravel for Heritage, who scrapped their way back into the contest after Western leapt out to an 11-2 lead to open the game.

Now the Warriors take on Covenant in the semifinals of the Holiday Classic tonight.

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