Tuesday night, Albemarle’s boys squad cruised to a 25-point road victory over Massaponax.
Thursday night, the Patriots had a lot more of a fight on their hands.
Still, behind a strong 24-point, 8-rebound effort by Rashad Talley, Albemarle managed to hold off the Panthers, winning 63-54.
“As much as a coach preaches that every game is different and you can’t take people lightly,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “They were scrapping and clawing for loose balls and we were going through the motions. But we started executing better.”
Talley had two straight good nights against the Panthers, with 11 points and six boards against Massaponax in the Tuesday win.
The Patriots (12-5,6-4), for at least a night, hold third place in the Commonwealth District behind Stafford and Colonial Forge. North Stafford and Mountain View are a half game back of Albemarle at 5-4 before games Friday night.
Albemarle jumped out to an 8-2 lead before Massaponax scrapped their way back into the contest and tied things up at the half. But a second half run by the Patriots allowed Albemarle to jump ahead by 10 and hold on from there. Albemarle forward Jake Hendrix scored 14 points for the Patriots, including a rare 3-pointer for the big man, and hauled in seven rebounds.
“Jake has a nice shot, he can shoot,” Maynard said. “Our high-low game works really well with him dumping into Rashad or Andrew (Mann) because if they don’t respect his shot he can knock it down.”
Mayn Francisco buried a pair of long balls en route to a 12-point night. Daiquan West dished out five assists to spark the Albemarle offense.
John Williams poured in 20 points to lead the Panthers while Mike Hamilton finished with 10 points and Tim Battle chipped in eight.
