It had been a while since anything had fallen for Blue Ridge. But after a dry spell where the only points the Barons could find were at the free throw line, Chad Holley put the dagger in Miller’s chest. The senior’s shot might have fallen with two minutes still left in overtime, but it created the much needed seperation.
“He’s got ice water in his veins,” said Barons coach Bill Ramsey. “He’s played in a lot of big games and he’s one of a lot of our guys that always stays even-keeled, doesn’t get too excited.”
It was the only field goal that fell through the net in overtime. After a few clutch defensive rebounds and a slew of Cameron Anderson and Darryl Smith free throws, Blue Ridge had survived. While the first meeting came down to a last second shot between this two schools, there was little doubt that this fourth encounter was the toughest and most exciting. And at the end of the night the Barons punched their ticket to the final four in Petersburg this weekend with a 66-59 overtime win over the Mavericks in the VISAA Division 1 quarterfinals.
“I think we’ve got some good things going and a lot of it is the two and three years of work that most of these guys have put together,” Ramsey said. “They’ve been living in the dorms together for a long time now, developed a lot of chemistry. In those timeouts at the end they were just getting on each other, telling one another to fight. They were willing themselves to win. I really didn’t have to do a whole lot except worry. They didn’t do much of that, it was just me.”
Miller dug itself out of a 7-point deficit to start the third quarter to eventually take a 1-point lead in the middle of the frame. After that, it was neck-and-neck with no wiggle room for either.
“As a team, Miller really shot the lights out on us in that third quarter,” Ramsey said. “They hit a lot of 3-pointers and not too many of them were wide open looks, they were contested.”
With the game tied at 56 and 90 seconds on the clock, Blue Ridge elected to play for one last shot. While the Barons managed to avoid a costly turnover in that period facing a lot of pressure from Miller, a shot underneath the basket from Anderson just missed. With 2.2 seconds left in the fourth the Mavericks tried to get one last shot but a steal from Smith negated that and sent the game into overtime.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game, that they were going to give it all they had,” Anderson said. “I didn’t want it to end (with a last second shot) in fourth. The game went too fast. I wanted to win so bad, but I wanted to keep playing too.”
They did and what had been a field goal battle between Blue Ridge’s Malick Kone and Miller’s Andrew White for much of the game, all but disappeared in extra time. In fact, neither squad could get its shots to fall, inside or outside, but both found their way to the free throw line. After trading a pair of free throws (both teams missed two as well) the table was set for Holley.
“It felt like my touch was there the whole game,” Holley said. “We were hitting a lot of big shots early in the game but then got a little anxious later on. I think I finally settled down to knock it down. It was a big shot and after that all we had to do was make stops and shoot free throws.”
That’s exactly what happened. The senior’s 3-pointer from the top of the key gave Blue Ridge a 3-point lead and after a defensive stop capped by an Anderson rebound, it was back to the free throw line for the rest of the game. While the Barons missed a few down the stretch, Miller was unable to generate any more offense than a Hendrix Emu free throw.
“I’m proud of the effort we gave tonight and I think we proved that we can play with the best,” said Mavericks coach Scott Willard. “It’s taken the whole year for us to get to know one another, and I’ll go to war with anyone with this group.”
White led all scorers with 19 points on the night and also hauled in seven rebounds an doled out three assists. Janeil Jenkins poured in 11 points and also had three assists. Travis Hester, who’s first half shooting kept Blue Ridge from going up by double digits, scored nine points to go with his five boards. He also led the team in passing with four assists.
Miller (17-12) does not graduate a single senior after losing almost its entire roster last season.“We’re going to remember this through our spring, summer and fall workouts,” Willard said. “Hopefully we’ll come back with the type of intensity and will that we had tonight.”
For Blue Ridge, both Kone and Anderson finished with 18 points each. Anderson was key for Blue Ridge particularly late as the team’s center, Isaiah Battle, was unable to play the last half of the fourth quarter and all of overtime because of a gash to his mouth.
“We had to rebound and play a lot tougher after that because Isaiah brings this huge body (to the court) and he makes it easy for the rest of us to box out,” Anderson said.
Kone grabbed six rebounds while Anderson had the biggest night on the glass of any player with his 12 boards. Holley finished with 17 points fueled by a trio of 3-pointers.
The top seeded Barons are headed back to Petersburg. In both 2009 and 2010, Blue Ridge came out of the last weekend of play as VISAA Division 1 runners up, something Holley and his fellow seniors are anxious to change, but for now they’re just happy to have survived.
“I’ve been here four years,” Holley said. “We’ve been so close to it — we always get to the final four, and then to the finals. To not get to the final four in my senior year would have been devastating. There were some nerves tonight, with us playing four times and getting to know each other so well.”
The Barons (24-1) play the winner of Cape Henry Collegiate/Paul VI on Friday at 7 p.m. at Virginia State University.
