When you make the vast majority of your 3-point attempts, you’re in good shape. When you do that and pull the trigger from beyond the arc for the whole game as though you were trailing by a massive amount, well there’s not a lot you can do. Albemarle tried, and after crawling out of an early hole, the Patriots were able to keep pace with Culpeper in the title game of the NBC29/Daily Progress Holiday Classic, but not in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils hit all the big shots they needed and pounded it down low as well to out run their opponent, 65-59.
“It worked out tonight,” said Culpeper coach James Thomspon of all thre 3-pointers. “You live by it, you die by it. We wanted to play inside but Albemarle had a good game plan for that. They shut us down in the paint and we couldn’t even get good entry passes.
Culpeper exploded to start with a 12-2 run to open the game, but Albemarle bounced right back with a big run of its own to take a 1-point lead in the second half to make this a highly entertaining final.
The second and third quarter was an absolute battle between the two. Behind Andrew Mann and Kendall Hawkins, the Patriots were penetrating, scoring and then scoring some more when the defense drew in and backdoor passes were made. But on the other side of the court, whenever Bobby Zajkowski or Nick Stewart unloaded a three pointer – and that was often – it went in.
“That’s the way we do it,” Zajkowski said. “But Nick Stewart, who’s just a sophomore, really came through for us. The two of us we able to set picks for each other and hit our shots.”
Through three quarters nearly half of all of the Blue Devils field goals came from 3-point range. But it wasn’t until soon to be Syracuse football player Drayton Shanks came alive on offense in the fourth quarter that Culpeper was able to put away Albemarle. The Patriots had surrendered almost nothing underneath when on defense until Shanks got charged up on an alley-oop that brought the gym down, as well as Thompson’s bench.
“It brought us to life because in the first half, we were running in sand,” Thompson said of Shanks’ dunks. “You bring him in for his energy. He plays off the offense. Earlier in the game he was kind of moping around because he hadn’t scored yet. But once that ball goes in the net, he see it in his eyes and he’s got a little more hop in his step.”
And then he did it again. And then for good measure, again. After committing only two fouls until the last three minutes of the game, Albemarle found itself in a tough situation as it had to commit four fouls to send the Blue Devils (8-1) to the free throw line to preserve the clock.
But Albemarle wasn’t able to force the turnovers and the elusive Josh Majors was able to dribble off way too much clock. After Stewart made it a 7-point lead for Culpeper with two minutes to play, Shanks made it an 8-point game on one of his dunks with 1:42 left.
Five straight points from Andrew Mann in the final minute made it a 4-point game but with only 8.6 seconds to play, Albemarle couldn’t wiggle its way back in.
“I really thought that we played extremely well,” said Patriots coach Greg Maynard. “We were right with them almost the entire game. I’m really proud of the way my kids played though, all tournament long.”
Zajkowski was named the tournament’s most valuable player and understandably so after his 19-point game which included five 3-pointers. Stewart also had five threes to finish with 15. Shanks racked up 11 points.
For Albemarle, Mann tied Zajkowski for a game-high 19 points, but also chipped in an astonishing 15 rebounds to go along with five assists. Hawkins came up with 16 points. Jake Hendrix had four points was key down low with seven rebounds.
Albemarle (8-3) jumps right back into Commonwealth District play with Stafford on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
