Stories

Black Knights cruise past Mustang boys

It’s been a staple of his program for a very long time and an indicator of the school’s success in the sport. Mitch Minor’s Charlottesville basketball team doesn’t lose back-to-back games, and certainly not when they are both home contests. Another staple, of course, is that his team plays with speed and runs the court, and the Black Knights looked much more comfortable doing that on Friday in their 55-34 victory over Monticello than they did in defeat on Wednesday against Madison County.

“We really are stressing team ball and against Madison we didn’t play as a team,” Minor said. “Tonight I thought that we came out early and played really great team defense. There were some times after that that we didn’t but overall I was very happy.”

The Mustangs and Black Knights exchanged early baskets after the opening tipoff, but after the Charlottesville defense forced a pair of turnovers, senior Maurice Jackson was able to hit a pair of three pointers and put his team out front by eight points and Monticello would never get closer than six points of the lead.

“Wednesday I didn’t have a good night shooting the ball,” Jackson said. “Before the game my team told me to come out shooting and to keep my head up. I came out and hit those two threes to put us ahead early and we just took off after that. Everyone had a big night.”

It was a balanced attack for Charlottesville with Jackson, Terrence Briggs, and Daquan Jones each scoring 10 points and guards Xavier Porter and Juwan Taylor contributing nine and eight respectively. Taylor was one of many to come off the bench for Minor and contribute quality minutes, with Devin Turner being another. Tuner finished with four points, three steals and five rebounds.

“I was really proud of the bench,” Minor said. “Tonight the bench was the difference with their intensity. Those guys did a great job, especially picking up the tempo of the game.”

Up 10 points entering the second half, it was the Charlottesville bench that sparked a vigorous third quarter that helped double the lead. The Black Knights went up by as many as 27 points early in the fourth frame and was able to coast to their first win of the season.

The Mustangs’ best basketball came at the start and finish of the game.  Early on, Monticello was able to establish a presence in the paint with Paul Harper, but the Black Knights quickly zeroed in defensively and forced the Mustangs to look elsewhere.

“I was happy with the first half of the first quarter and the last half of the fourth quarter,” said Monticello coach Kareem Martin. “Everytime (Harper) got a bucket it was when we ran our offense. Outside of that, we didn’t run our offense. And that comes from not playing. We’ll be fine. We’re very young. We’ve got five new starters and a lot of work to do.”

The Mustangs’ two exhibition scrimmages were cancelled last week and this was the first time the team had played anyone other than themselves.

Harper finished with seven points and six rebounds. Teammate Terry Glover led the team in scoring with 10 points fueled by a pair of 3-pointers.

Monticello (0-1, 0-1 Jefferson District) will host Nelson County on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

Charlottesville (1-1, 1-0) will travel to Western Albemarle on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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