By Allen Kha/Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Charlottesville and Monticello have both only practiced for about a week in the currently young season, but that didn’t change the fact that the teams faced off in a pivotal JD matchup Friday night. Two of what might be the conference’s best teams battled in a closely fought game then ended 70-58 in the Black Knights’ favor.
Both teams showed their early-season rust in the first half, committing a collective 19 turnovers in the half. Charlottesville jumped out to a 15-14 lead by the end of the first quarter, and extended their lead to 32-25 by halftime. The Black Knights and Mustangs traded buckets in the second half as well for the most part, matching each other’s quickness on offense.
Charlottesville was able to widen its first-half lead to a 12-point victory in the second half, nonetheless, because of its stellar post play and ability to create second chances off offensive rebounds. Monticello was able to cut the lead to within eight points on a few occasions in the second half by capitalizing on its quickness, but couldn’t close the score any further.
Charlottesville junior forward Dashaun Blakey’s breakout performance led the way for the Black Knights a game-high 34 points and 14 rebounds, while fellow junior forward Rickquan Jones added eight points. Monticello sophomore guard Denzel Terry led his team with 19 points, three steals, and two assists.
Charlottesville head coach Mitch Minor was generally impressed with his team’s conference-opening performance, noting that his team stepped up in a fairly intense atmosphere and won a crucial Jefferson District game.
“I was impressed with the runs we made tonight. A lot of our scoring chances came in the paint, and I though Dashaun did a good job in the post,” Minor said. “The biggest positive of the game for us was definitely the inside game. It’s a big testament to our team that we won this district game, (against one of) the top-3 teams in the (Jefferson) District.”
Black Knights senior point guard Devin Turner — who had five points, three assists, and four rebounds in the game — pointed out that his team’s defensive performance wasn’t up to standard.
“We need to improve on our on-ball and off-ball defense. We just need them get to the rim, use their quickness to penetrate when we should have let them do that. We did good on the offensive end, but our defense has to get better,” Turner said.
Monticello head coach Kareem Martin, on the other hand, was fairly positive about his team’s effort.
“We can’t give then so many offensive rebounds, so many extra shots and expect to win. [Charlottesville] outhustled us, and we missed too many free throws. Our offense is fine, and when we run our system, it’s very successful. We’ll be fine, a lot better position than last year,” Martin said. “We lost be 10 points giving up 30-some points on the offensive glass. There’s a lot we can fix.”
Monticello will travel to Albemarle Saturday evening at 7 p.m., while Charlottesville will play host to Western Albemarle next Friday evening.
