By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
With 3:20 remaining in the Jefferson District championship game, the Charlottesville boys basketball team trailed Albemarle, a team the Black Knights had beaten twice during the regular season, 40-36 on Charlottesville’s home floor.
Head coach Mitch Minor called a timeout after the Patriots’ Jake Hahn gave AHS that four-point margin, and the Knights responded with suffocating defense and held the Pats to just one basket the rest of the way to come away with a 48-42 victory and another district title.
“I told the team not to lose their composure, and to just look for a good shot,” Minor said. “There was plenty of time left and I wanted us to play good defense too after we made a shot.”
Charlottesville made just three three-pointers on the night, but coming out of a timeout, senior point guard Jordan Saylor sank a long trey to ignite a 9-0 run over the next three minutes and the Black Knights went 5-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the victory. Saylor led CHS with 14 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter.
After an Albemarle miss following Saylor’s three, the Knights had a chance to take the lead with 2:21 remaining, but Kendell Dennis missed the front end of a one-and-one. Charlottesville then got another stop and Mica Girstantas, usually so deadly from long range, stepped inside the arc and hit a short jumper to give Charlottesville the lead for good with just under two minutes remaining.
By the time Hahn scored again to break Albemarle’s drought, only 21 seconds remained and the Patriots immediately fouled Saylor trailing 45-42. Saylor made one of two to make it a two-possession game, and Hahn missed a driving layup on the other end, effectively ending Albemarle’s chances at a rally.
“If it were a 29-minute game, we would’ve won it,” Albemarle head coach Greg Maynard said. “Those last three minutes, I thought we really needed a stop when we were up four. We got good shots, but they just didn’t fall.”
The Charlottesville defense held AHS star forward Austin Katstra to eight points, all in the second half. The first half was close throughout and was a defensive battle, with each team making just two field goals in the opening quarter for a 4-4 score after eight minutes. A three by Hahn, who led Albemarle with 15 points, and a basket by Juwan Carter gave the Patriots a 9-4 lead early in the second. Girstantas broke a Charlottesville drought of just over seven-and-a-half minutes with a basket and two free throws, making it 9-8 at the 5:16 mark. The remainder of the quarter featured six lead changes and Albemarle went into the locker room with a 19-17 lead.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well, but our defense kept us in the game,” Minor said. “Defense is what we’ve been emphasizing for awhile, and I think that [Albemarle] did a good job on defense too.”
Katstra got his first two baskets of the game on back-to-back possessions to open the third, first on a putback to make it 21-17. The next time down the court, he slithered through the CHS defense and threw down a reverse one-handed dunk to bring the Patriot faithful to its feet and make it a six-point game. That was Albemarle’s largest lead of the game.
Trailing 25-21 midway through the third, the Black Knights went on a 6-0 spurt to gain their first lead of the second half, fueled by back-to-back buckets from DeAndre Bryant. Albemarle’s Kennedy Brown drilled a long three, his only basket of the game, on the next possession to put the Patriots back in front, and Albemarle led 32-29 after three.
Saylor gave CHS a brief 34-33 lead on a trey with 6:25 left in the game. But Carter tied it on a free throw, and Katstra put the Pats back in front. Caleb Gage tied it once more with 4:23 left, but that was Charlottesville’s last basket until the decisive run.
“We had to turn up the intensity. We could not lose on our home floor,” said Saylor of his team’s late-game surge. “We had to turn the intensity on defense up.”
Charlottesville, normally fueled by the three-pointer, shot just 3-of-15 from beyond the arc. Albemarle wasn’t much better at 4-of-14. The Patriots shot 5-of-8 from the foul line, while the Black Knights were 9-for-10.
Both teams will compete in conference play next week. Albemarle is the No. 2 seed in Conference 16 and will host Patrick Henry-Ashland on Tuesday night, while Charlottesville is the top seed in Conference 23 and will play its first game Wednesday against an opponent to be determined.
