Pretty don’t matter, how don’t either. The scoreboard does. The William Monroe seniors will soon forget the details of how they won their senior night with Skyline. What they will retain is that they won. The Dragons had to scratch and claw in the second half with the Hawks as a defensive adjustment by the visitors and foul trouble took Monroe out of its first half rhythm. But with some timely free throws from Logan Barbour and a big and-1 from Parker Woolford, Monroe was able to come from behind the final two minutes to gut out a 46-41 win in their regular season home finale.
“We were really executing well and waiting for our sets in the first half,” said Monroe coach Brett Maynard. “The only thing we didn’t do well was setting our feet with a few travels but I thought we played disciplined. I was really proud of our guys in the second, knocking down the clutch free throws, especially Logan. He made a ton of pressure free throws, something that we’ve struggled with this year. So it was nice to see those go in and we needed them.”
The Dragons had a great first quarter with Alex Kinsey and Jonathan Sexton combining for a trio of 3-pointers to make it 9-0 out of the gate. With Kinsey driving the Monroe offense and Mason Schmitz accounting for almost all of Skyline’s the Dragons held a 15-8 lead going into the second and then a 27-19 advantage going into the break.
“Especially early, I thought we played with a lot of passion with that coming from our seniors,” Maynard said. “I was proud of the grit and determination tonight. There was a will to win. We didn’t play well in the second but just ground it out.”
And from there, everything got really different quickly. For starters, the Hawks threw a box-and-one at Monroe in an effort to keep Kinsey from getting any shots. Kinsey then quickly wound up in foul trouble, limiting his minutes and forcing Monroe to find offense elsewhere. And while Schmitz continued to hit shots and the Dragons adjusted, the lead shrank down to 32-28 going into fourth. With 3:24 left, Kinsey fouled out and with 3-pointer from Schmitz with 1:24 to go, the Hawks had their first second half lead at 41-39.
“That was tough because I came out shooting hot but then just got face guarded from there and ended up fouling out so I’m watching the game from the bench just counting on my teammates,” Kinsey said. “It’s always nice to win on senior night and this is the best Monroe team I’ve played for between the relationships on and off the court.”
That’s when Woolford showed up offensively in a big way. The Monroe senior picked up an and-1 with 1:01 to go on hard play underneath. He buried the subsequent free throw and the Dragons were back up 42-41.
“To be honest I didn’t know (the score) at the time,” Woolford said. “I just went up hard to score like we’ve been practicing all week. They called the foul and it just all worked out.”
After Skyline was hit with a technical foul after a turnover, Barbour finished the job at the free throw line to wrap up the 46-41 win.
“I’ve been struggled with free throws lately so I spent a lot time in practice working on them,” Barbour said. “My dad, I talked to him a lot and he told me to shoot with my fingertips so I did and they went in tonight.”
On the night, Kinsey had 13 points as did Barbour. Barbour went 10-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter alone. Woolford finished with eight points to go along with 10 rebounds.
“Parker is just an extremely hard worker,” Maynard said. “His will and effort make such a difference.”
Schmitz led all scorers with his five three pointers for 19 points.
“He was tough and he’s never shot like that against us, has usually been more of a penetrator,” Maynard said. “We knew what he was capable of. We had a couple of times where we weren’t getting a hand out on his jump shot but talked about and then we closed out in the second half.”
Monroe travels to Culpeper on Tuesday with sole possession of a Northwestern District title on the line. The Dragons likely earned a home playoff game to start Region 3C play on Friday as well.
