There aren’t many times where Blue Ridge’s Scott Spencer has been held scoreless in a half. And he wasn’t about to let Carlisle make it two in a row in the VISAA Division II semfinals.
So Spencer called on everything he’d picked up from the Barons’ team-building exercises throughout this year and brought it all together.
“There are different words that we do every week — consistency, accountability, effort and I just took all that into consideration,” Spencer said. “We came in the locker room and talked about it, my teammates had the most confidence in me, my coaches had confidence in me and I had confidence in me.”
With his thoughts gathered, Spencer poured in 15 points in the second half as Blue Ridge pulled away from Carlisle 57-41 with a stifling defensive effort in the two squads’ fourth meeting.
The Barons held Carlisle’s entire roster to 11 points or less on the night, which is no easy task.
“I think everybody on our team takes pride in stopping their man,” said Blue Ridge’s Malik Johnson. “That’s pretty big when we have everybody on the court not wanting their man to score on them.”
All the Barons really had to lean on for much of the first two quarters was their defense as they fell into a 13-8 hole. The offense came alive finally late in the second half, capped by a buzzer beater 3-pointer by Johnson that put the Barons up 19-15, an 11-2 run closing out the half after a dismal offensive start.
“We all of the sudden had the right lineup in where they know nothing but ‘go hard’,” said Blue Ridge coach Cade Lemcke. “Certain guys you have to coach to go hard, other guys it’s in their blood and we had the right group in there at the end of the second quarter.”
That spurt of momentum, which also helped the Barons weather a couple of early fouls on Aamir Simms that left him tethered to the bench, carried over into the second half. That’s when Spencer caught fire early and get things going in a big way as the Barons outscored Carlisle 21-8 in the third. That’s been typical for the Barons, who’ve taken the classic “second half team” cliche and made it even more specific — they’re a third quarter team.
“That’s our quarter, that’s been our quarter all year,” Lemcke said. “I don’t know if it’s our ability of the players to make adjustments at halftime — I have a great assistant coaching staff that they help and we talk about what adjustments need to be made. (I think it’s) a combination of that and the guys just being fresh and the nerves and jitters being out. Whatever it is, we come out in that third quarter and it’s a different team.”
The numbers bear it out too. Blue Ridge has won every third quarter this year except for one by 10 or more points. That lone exception was the VIC title game against Carlisle a week ago, and it left the Barons in dogfight that eventually ended with a Blue Ridge win in overtime.
They didn’t need overtime Friday, putting Carlisle away with that huge third and setting up another matchup with Virginia Episcopal in the state final Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
The Barons got nine points from Simms, all of them coming in the second half. Johnson finished with 13 points after carrying the Barons before the break with 10 first half points.
Rasir Bolton finished with 11 points while Shakur Daniels notched nine for the Indians. The Barons’ defense locked down the rest of the Indians as well for the fourth time, a testament to a trait that has come to define the Barons this year.
“They have a tremendous team and just to beat them four times shows you how many players accept their role on our team and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the better of our team,” Spencer said.
