For three and a half quarters, everyone in the gym was waiting for that burst. It was bound to happen for one side or the other given the talent on the floor. Yet, for three and a half quarters, St. Anne’s-Belfield and Blue Ridge pawed at each other with both sides struggling with turnovers, finishing at the basket, knocking down open shots, free throws, foul trouble — you name it.
It was two talented teams playing December basketball, and tied or within a possession of the other for almost the entire contest. Point and case as to the pace before the fourth — with the game tied midway through the third quarter, a total of four points were scored over a four minute stretch to close out the frame, and not because either side was taking their time on possessions.
However, and thankfully for all those who packed the gym looking to catch something special, the trench warfare changed in the fourth. As it turned out, it was Blue Ridge that found that spark to get something going. With his team up just barely, it was Josh Colon coming up with a turnover and hitting Scott Spencer on a no-look alley-oop that broke things loose. It was a start to a the biggest run of the game, and behind it the Barons surged to a 62-51 win on the road for their second win in three days.
“What we talked about all week is that if we want to be a great team with a bunch of great players, we’ve got to go into a hostile environment with a very good player (in Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier) and bring it for the entire 32 minutes,” said Blue Ridge coach Cade Lemcke, “We knew we were going to get their best shot.”
The Barons were up by one when Colon found a leaping Spencer. And with more in the paint and then a 3-pointer, Spencer poured in 10 points in the fourth to give Blue Ridge all the breathing room it needed, a 3-possesion lead.
It was the start of what was an 11-1 run where Blue Ridge was able to create offensive off turnovers. With just over a minute left, the Barons came up with back-to-back stops on defense up by three possessions, and then knocked down what they needed to in order to wrap up the win.
“We came out in the fourth quarter, made a couple of plays and that started it,” Spencer said. “I felt like the alley-oop started it. It was just a great pass by Josh, amazing pass. I couldn’t have done it with out that pass, it was just perfect.”
The first half between the two sides was methodical and slowed down by foul trouble. Long possessions and a cranky rim kept things low scoring with neither side getting more than a 3-point margin up until the final minutes of the second. It was there that STAB played it’s best basketball as it saw Montgomery-DeLaurier and Jayden Nixon led their squad out of a 3-point hole early in the second to earn a 4-point lead. Lost in the melee of the fourth was Montgomery-DeLaurier’s double-double performance despite being heavily shadowed and doubled most of the night.
“We’ve got to finish,” said STAB coach Brian Kent. “For us to get over the top we need to make the layups. Obviously this a good team (we played against) that played with urgency and forced a lot of turnovers. We’re a better team than this. Last year at this point we were playing weaker competition and right now we’re going up against the top teams in the state… it’s hard to swallow this with the team we have, but I know when you look to February we’ll be more ready.”
Spencer led the way for Blue Ridge with 27 points. Johnson added 13. Simms finished with eight.
In addition to his 19 points, the Duke-bound Montgomery-DeLaurier had 20 rebounds. Nixon had 11 points and seven rebounds. Jalen Harrison threw in nine points.
STAB (1-3) will travel to Miller on Friday at 6:30 p.m. for yet another local rivalry game. Blue Ridge (2-1) heads to the Bullis Holiday Classic in Potomac this weekend.
