Albemarle got a 23-point, nine-rebound effort from Derrick Jones and made 9-of-13 foul shots in the final four minutes of the game to stave off Charlottesville 59-52 Friday night, completing a regular-season sweep over the crosstown rival Black Knights.
The Patriots led by as many as 14 in the first half, but that advantage slipped away as Charlottesville methodically began to chip away in the late stages of the second quarter. The Knights went without a bucket for a stretch of over eight minutes spanning the first two periods, but fought back to trim the deficit to 25-22 at halftime and bring to life a crowd that had been largely taken out of the game to that point.
Charlottesville’s strong play continued after the break, with the Knights gaining their first lead since the opening minutes on consecutive baskets by Zy Faulkner and Nic Motley, followed by a pair of Isaiah Washington free throws which gave them a 28-27 lead with 4:59 to go in the third.
“Other than the last couple minutes of the second quarter, which I thought we played soft, we were extremely tough and physical,” Albemarle coach Greg Maynard said. “You have to do that against Charlottesville–they’ll keep coming at you.”
Then Jones, who had 11 points in the first half and also finished with four steals and a pair of blocks, woke up. The junior drilled a deep three-pointer from the left wing to put Albemarle back in front, igniting a 12-2 run that gave Albemarle a lead it didn’t give back.
“Any time you give [Jones] some space, he’s gonna shoot it,” Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor said. “He did a good job of that. We tried to adjust on defense a little bit. We got a couple stops and got some quick timeouts. We did a good job getting some steals, but didn’t capitalize.”
On the next possession, Jones was fouled shooting another three and swished all three free throws, then hit another three after a basket by Chris Cox to push the lead to 38-30 with just under a minute to play in the period, giving the large Albemarle contingent that had made the short jaunt reason to make noise. Albemarle led 40-31 after three.
Cox, held scoreless in the first half after dropping a career-high 27 in last week’s blowout win over Fluvanna, finished with 11 points and six rebounds. Dasaun Taylor had nine points and seven rebounds while Jake LaRosa chipped in seven points.
“It feels really good to get a win here,” Jones said. “The first of three road games we have to play coming up, hopefully this gives us momentum going into them.”
Charlottesville wasn’t dead yet, however, twice cutting the lead to five in the final period. In the final seconds, Jake Bowling banked in a three to cut it to 56-52, but the Knights couldn’t find the basket again and the Patriots salted the game away from the line.
“I thought we made enough good plays to get a couple easy layups, and Derrick got hot from the outside,” Maynard said. “That combination of total team play on both ends led us to win.”
Faulkner had 15 and Washington 14 to lead CHS, which fell two games behind Albemarle in the Jefferson District standings.
Albemarle’s Derrick Jones, who scored 23 points tonight, talks about the Pats’ win over Charlottesville in First Off the Floor presented by @PT_acac pic.twitter.com/Dah0TFYvs4
— scrimmageplay (@scrimmageplay) January 19, 2019
