Before Hampton Roads Academy could bat an eye, Blue Ridge, the defending state champions, made an opening statement to its opponents in the VISAA Division 2 tournament — an alley-oop finished by Scott Spencer off the tip off. It gave the top-seeded Barons the lead, but it did a lot more than just that.
Minutes later, Blue Ridge was up double digits. A few minutes after that, it was all but over. If Wednesday was anything, it was the Barons flexing and then beating their chest to let the rest of the tourney field know what to expect going forward.
“We saw (Hampton) yesterday and knew they liked to play fast so we wanted to set the tone early,” Spencer said.
The Barons fired on all cylinders from start to finish on offense and defense and had little trouble punching their ticket to Petersburg for the state semifinals Friday. With their emphatic season high score, a 107-48 win over the Navigators, this is a team not just brimming with confidence, but playing up to, and at least Wednesday, well beyond its well-respected reputation.
“We knew that if we defended the way we can defend, we’d be in good shape,” said Blue Ridge coach Cade Lemcke. “Now you add shooting the ball the way we did to the top and it gets a little crazy.”
Yes, it truly was as simple as that. With five turnovers in the first three minutes and the hosts shooting 56% from the field — indeed, things got crazy, and crazy fast.
It began with Spencer’s dunk to form a 9-2 run out of the first two minutes. With the Clemson signee getting warm from outside after that, and fellow senior Malik Johnson getting his game going from both inside and outside too, it was a 17-7 lead in the middle of the first quarter. Then that tandem continued to pour it on to the tune of a 25-3 run that stretched between the end of the first and the second quarter to make it 42-10. When halftime came, the damage was done, a 57-20 lead was more than enough for the defending champs to cruise.
“We knew they were going to run a zone and to score against that you’ve got to push it and not let them set up in it,” Johnson said. “I think we got the dunk on the tip, that’s always big to start a game. Everybody’s energy just goes up to another level (after that) and everybody feeds off of that.”
While Johnson and Spencer stepped aside a bit offensively in the second half, Blue Ridge’s Josh Colon kept the Barons rolling as he buried 3-pointers and also finished inside. His 12 points in the third quarter pushed the Barons out to a 92-32 lead heading into the fourth.
“It was all in the game plan so I want to thank (Aamir Simms), Scott, and Malik — they got me the open shots,” Colon said. “We’ve got a lot a shooters, this what we do all the time.”
Blue Ridge’s bench was able to clean up the rest of the way with senior Tae Watts getting the crowd excited when his layup midway through the final frame put the Barons over the century mark.
On the night, Spencer poured in 24 points with 17 coming in the first half. Johnson had 20 with 14 in the first two frames. Colon had 18 points. Afanna Offor chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds. Simms had nine points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Paul Sienke chipped in six rebounds and three steals. Each Baron that stepped on the floor registered a point.
Blue Ridge (23-3) will face Carlisle for the fourth time this year in the semifinals in Petersburg on Friday. The Barons have won the previous three including the last, an overtime win in the VIC championship game last week.
