Embarking on its second tour through the Bull Run District, William Monroe was already sitting on top of the standings with a 1-game lead over Strasburg. With third place Clarke County sitting two games out of first, a win over the visiting Rams would give the Dragons all but a stranglehold on the Region B berth that comes with finishing first in the regular season. Monroe got all of that on Wednesday with a 63-53 win over Strasburg to complete a regular season sweep of the Rams.
“We played hard and that’s why we won,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “We didn’t execute and Strasburg’s defense had a lot to do with. We didn’t finish around the rim. Fortunately we made some big free throws at the end. Defense was pretty good… but I think the main reason we won was because of our heart, we just tried hard.”
While it was a sloppy game by both squads in terms of turnovers, the tempo of the first half was uncanny as both teams raced up and down the court and there was barely a stoppage in play. Strasburg took two leads in the game, and both of them came in the first minutes of play in the first. But after Monroe guard Austin Batten sunk his second 3-pointer of the frame, the Dragons took the lead and built that up into a 16-9 advantage.
Behind Gary Morris’ jump shot, Monroe was able to keep a three and four possession lead for almost all of the second quarter, going up by double digits into the break at 33-19.
“We knew that we wanted to push the tempo because we had more athletes just because of our bench,” Morris said. “We just played team basketball and everyone contributed tonight. It wasn’t one player, everyone helped out.”
In the second half, the Rams made three pushes to try and get within striking distance of the Dragons, the first coming midway through the third quarter where the deficit was trimmed to seven. Monroe didn’t allow Strasburg to put together more of a run though and with Jeff Early chipping in and giving his team a 12-point lead going into the fourth.
“We played tough all night and it wasn’t our best basketball but we all played together,” said Monroe senior Markel Williams. “We hadn’t played since Tuesday against George Mason so we were kind of sloppy, but we got it together and finished it off.”
Early in the fourth Strasburg once again tried to close the gap, again getting within seven points with just over five minutes to go. Williams was able to get five of his 14-points on the night in fourth though to keep Monroe rolling. Behind a bevy of 3-pointers, the Rams made on last effort and trimmed the lead to six points, but with less than two minutes left, had to send the Dragons to the free throw line the rest of the way. That was little trouble for Monroe though as five different players combined to go 12 for 17 in the fourth quarter and wrap up the win.
“We wanted to care of home court,” Maynard said. “We knew if we lost this game we’d be tied and this gives us a little cushion.”
Four of five of Monroe’s starters seven of more points with Morris leading the way on his 16-point effort. Williams’ 14 points gave the Dragons two players in double figures. Early finished with nine points while Batten had seven. Off the bench, Darion McKinnie and Keegan Woolford had six and five points respectively and combined for a trio of 3-pointers.
Monroe (13-3, 8-0) heads to Manassas Park on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
