After a fast start to the regular season, Fluvanna County has struggled of late to get into their offense and patiently wait for the right shots at the right time.
Need evidence? Rough outings against Western Albemarle (41 points) and Orange County (39 points) tell the story.
The Flucos snapped out of that funk Friday against Monticello in a critical Jefferson District game and picked up a 62-54 victory that put Fluvanna right back in the district title conversation in the early stages of the year.
“We finally got into mode where when we’re running the offense that we want to run we’re getting the shots where we want to get the shots,” said Fluvanna coach Munro Rateau.
The Flucos won largely on the strength of a 17-3 second quarter that allowed them to build a lead over the Mustangs that they held on to from there. Monticello struggled during that stretch to attack the Flucos’ zone too, and a pair of Jalen Harrison dunks and back-to-back 3-pointers by Vinny Agee ignited Fluvanna.
By halftime the Flucos were in control with an 11-point lead. Monticello’s speedy guards managed to cut that lead to five early in the second half, but they couldn’t get much closer. Fluvanna stretched it back out to eight with under four minutes to play, hitting their stride offensive midway through the final frame.
While Agee and Harrison carried the bulk of the load with 22 and 19 points respectively, the contributions from Tre’vonne Bradley (seven points) and Dashon Tibbs (nine points) had a big impact.
“I thought Tre’vonne Bradley played really well for us and he’s kind of been in a slump,” Rateau said. “Tibbs played his best game. He’s such a good competitor that he’s in there fighting all the time.”
Monticello couldn’t seem to find an answer for the 2-3 zone that the Flucos packed into in order to slow down the Mustangs’ ability to attack the basket. Those struggles were compounded by Fluvanna’s domination on the boards too where Tibbs had nine rebounds and Agee led the way with 11 boards.
“It’s something we work on (breaking the zone) and we’ve just got to get better at it,” said Monticello coach Robert Shelton. “At times we were stagnant in our offense and that’s something that we’ve just got to continue to work on — we’ll see a lot of it this year.”
Denzel Terry and Jhalil Mosley each finished with 15 for the Mustangs. Dorian Butler dished out seven assists on the night for Fluvanna.
Monticello hits the road Tuesday to take on Powhatan (the Mustangs topped Fauquier 55-35 Saturday) while Fluvanna will try and build on their sudden momentum at home against Charlottesville Tuesday.
