Brandon Pitts scored 21 points and engineered a 14-5 run at the beginning of the second half, breaking open a close game and allowing Manassas Park to avenge last month’s home loss to William Monroe with a 59-57 victory as the Cougars withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally from the Dragons.
The Cougars outscored Monroe 23-8 in the third frame as Pitts had seven of their first nine. Desmond Baah later drilled a three to push the margin to 10 with 4:29 to go in the third.
Baah hit another with 7:21 to go in the fourth, helping Manassas Park extend the lead to as many as 16 before Monroe began to chip away.
Alex Kinsey and Blake Shifflett helped put together a 12-2 Monroe run over three minutes in the fourth that allowed them to climb back into the game, cutting the margin to six.
“We started to pressure them a little bit,” Monroe coach Brett Maynard said. “We changed the tone of the game. I thought [Manassas Park’s] intensity messed us up. We weren’t communicating defensively. We weren’t doing the things that make us good.”
But Pitts hit a huge corner three with 3:11 to go and made five of six free throws down the stretch as the Dragons hung in by getting to the line themselves.
They got within two on several occasions, helped by a turnover and a technical foul on Manassas Park’s Cameron Dixon, but Barbour’s three at the buzzer rimmed out.
Barbour’s 18 paced Monroe followed by Kinsey with 17. In addition to Pitts’ output, Baah had nine and Devin Greene eight for Manassas Park.
The Dragons were hampered by the absence of center Parker Woolford as well as eight first-half turnovers which bogged them down and led to transition baskets for the Cougars. Monroe also went just 6-for-13 from the free throw line in the opening two quarters in a loss that ended a nine-game winning streak for the Dragons.
“They played very physically,” Maynard said. “We didn’t do well all the time–I thought we had stretches where we got some good looks. But I thought their physicality changed the game. We had too many turnovers and too many missed free throws to win
Manassas Park led 11-8 after one, and got scoring from seven players altogether in the first half, but Monroe tied it on a corner three by Kinsey which circled the rim half a dozen times before dropping through. The teams exchanged free throws after that, going into the break tied at 16.
The Dragons hit 7-for-18 from long distance while limiting the Cougars to 5-for-22. Monroe will travel to Warren County for a quick turnaround on Tuesday.
