Things haven’t gone as planned in Jefferson District play for William Monroe’s boys squad with a 1-3 start, but the Dragons have been terrific outside the Jefferson and that continued Wednesday night with a 48-46 victory over Turner Ashby in the final of Monroe’s Dragon Holiday Ball tournament.
Turner Ashby missed a pair of shots at the buzzer to lose to the Dragons, first missing a three, then grabbing a board and missing another jumper. Monroe led by as many as seven in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put the Knights away. Still, the defense held strong in the closing seconds.
Markell Faulkner had a strong game for the Dragons with a team-high 20 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. Desmon Shaver came up big too with 17 points and four assists.
The Dragons are now 8-4 and set to jump back into district play next week with a matchup against Louisa Tuesday night.
Page tops Monroe girls
William Monroe looked a little burned out. And considering the schedule the Dragons had before winter break and the fact that on Tuesday they went to overtime to pick up a narrow win over East Rockingham, that was understandable.
That fact, and some savvy, solid play from Page County gave the Panthers a 49-41 victory in the girls final at the Holiday Ball tournament at Monroe.
The Dragons managed to piece together a 25-20 lead that they held onto midway through the third. But Page hacked the slim lead away when a Katlin Comer 3-pointer tied the game at 25-25. Page built to a 32-28 advantage at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, a little delay set out of the break between quarters burned about two minutes off the clock and suddenly put Monroe’s back against the wall. The Dragons couldn’t string together enough points to really get back into things though with Page hitting 13 of their 15 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“When we tried to make a little run there they just made free throws,” said Monroe coach Phil Lamb.
Taylor Jenkins finished with 18 points after being held scoreless in the first quarter. She buried five of six foul shots in the fourth on her own. She also managed the 18 points despite Monroe throwing a pair of awfully good defenders at her in the close ballgame.
“Alexa (Smith) was on (Jenkins) and did a great job on her in the first half, but once they got that lead and tried to spread us, we had to switch it and put Alex (Cave) on her,” Lamb said. “I think they both were allowed to play a little too physical, I wasn’t very happy with that — both ways.”
Page’s Holli Lucas chipped in 15 points — she went four-for-five at the line in the final frame—to help boost Page to the title.
William Monroe’s Smith had 18 points but nobody else for William Monroe managed to get into double figures.
