Darryl Smith hasn’t just been a pass first guard in his career at Blue Ridge. He’s been pass first, second and third. Shoot checked in at around a distant fourth.
Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey wanted to change that.
“I told him this week ‘This is not last year. You’ve got the green light’,” Ramsey said.
Smith took the advice to heart. The junior point guard carried the Barons Saturday night, keeping them within striking distance and then spearheading a late rally that allowed Blue Ridge to escape Lynchburg with a 60-57 victory over Miller in the VIC tournament final at Virginia Episcopal.
“In the first half we got off to a slow start but coach told us to keep playing and fight through the adversity,” Smith said. “I guess I was feeling it. I just felt that the team needed me.”
The all-business, often quiet junior guard poured in 27 points, 15 of them in the fourth. He buried three 3-pointers in the final frame and five total for the game. He got it done despite drawing most of Miller’s attention down the stretch, pressure that stepped up as the game went on as the Mavericks recognized that Smith was heating up.
“I told him ‘I think they’re going to leave you open for at least half of them before they start guarding you’,” Ramsey said. “Then he made a couple when they were guarding him.”
Smith made a pair of critical plays in the closing seconds first when he gathered a loose ball off an Ahmad Fields drive and hit a putback to put the Barons up by a point with about 11 seconds to play. A few seconds later, after Fields, who finished with nine points, rimmed out a free throw, Smith wriggled his way through Miller’s rebounders and snagged a board, then quickly forced it out to Corbyn Jackson, eating up crucial seconds. Jackson hit one of two free throws to put Blue Ridge up three with just under three seconds to play. Miller called a quick timeout but couldn’t complete the inbounds pass to get off a shot and time expired as the ball careened away.
The final play closed out an incredible comeback that erased a 9-point Miller advantage coming into the fourth quarter. The Mavericks largely controlled the game — with Smith’s efforts keeping Blue Ridge close — for the first three and a half quarters, with Andrew White filling it up early and Tony Washington even coming on strong in the fourth off the bench. But Miller tightened up down the stretch, and couldn’t seem to come up with a single critical bucket or answer for Blue Ridge’s ramped up assault.
“We obviously didn’t handle it down the stretch,” said Miller coach Scott Willard. “We gave them a window. I thought we controlled that game from the tip.”
Jarod Williams had a solid game for the Barons, scoring 15 including a trio of 3-pointers. Williams opened the scoring with a fastbreak dunk just a few seconds after the opening tip. Big man Corbyn Jackson finished with eight points including the free throw that put the Barons up by three and forced Miller to look for a desperation heave to create a 3-point chance. Ahmad Fields checked in with nine points for the Barons.
The two local powers could go toe-to-toe one more time if Miller knocks off John Paul the Great in the first round of the state tournament Tuesday night at home. A win there would set up round four in St. George in the VISAA Division I quarterfinals.
