Buckingham County went 20 for 42 from the free-throw line against Goochland Tuesday night. Twenty for forty-two.
“To go 20-for-42 that’s almost impossible,” said Buckingham’s Tarian Ayres. “When Cam (Johnson) — he’s like an 80 percent shooter from the line — was struggling I knew we were going to be in trouble.”
Despite that frustrating, out-of-character performance at the line, Buckingham picked up a 62-52 victory as Goochland’s foul trouble that sent the Knights to the line that many times sunk the Bulldogs.
“You’ve got to give Goochland a lot of credit, they came in here and got off to a good start,” said Buckingham coach Russ Gowin. “They came out fired up and did a good job and our kids came out slow.”
Goochland’s James Brooks, a tenacious scoring point guard who’s been averaging more than 20 points per game, in particular, was saddled with fouls. He picked up his third during the first quarter. His absence allowed Buckingham to get its footing and turn around a seven-point Goochland advantage after the first quarter.
Still, Buckingham struggled, largely because of the free-throw shooting woes, to slice into the lead until midway through the second half. Finally the Knights hit a few at the line — 10 in a row to be exact — in a key stretch that gave Buckingham its first lead of the night. Brooks also fouled out in the meantime, hurting Goochland’s chances at a counterpunch. Brooks scored six points in the first quarter but fouls largely silenced the talented guard after that. He did manage to dish out four assists.
“We started playing a little defense—we held them to 15 points in the second half and gave up 37 in the first half,” Gowin said. “That’s the difference.”
The quartet of Tariq Bartee, Timmy Randolph, Johnson and Ayres ignited the second half rally. Johnson finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds while Ayres had 15 points to go with his 10 boards. Bartee had 14 points and nine rebounds and Timmy Randolph had 15 points.
L.A. Briley’s work in the fourth quarter, however, finished off Goochland. Briley put the ball on the floor and attacked the basket, drawing fouls or creating for teammates. Ayres did his fair share of getting to the rim too, drawing three fouls and going 4 for 6 at the line in the fourth.
Goochland searched for offense with Brooks on the bench and got nine points out of C.J. Johnson and another seven each from Nathan Adams, Cody Johnson and Zakell Johnson. Cody Johnson and C.J. Johnson split the point guard duties without Brooks in the lineup and handled the ball well. Zakell Johnson pulled down nine rebounds while Nathan Adams hauled in eight. Goochland managed took just 13 free throws to Buckingham’s 42, hitting seven of their 13.
Goochland faces another tough test Friday when the Bulldogs host Amelia, who knocked off Cumberland Tuesday. Buckingham will travel to take on Bluestone, another contender in a wideopen James River District. Several teams are within a game of first place in the eight-team league, Goochland and Buckingham among thme.
