William Monroe had the height advantage, but Charlottesville was back to its patented press, the kind of pressure that vaulted its undersized but lightning quick teams to the Group AA tournament back in 2009. Playing with a heavy rotation of players, many of them new to the varsity level, the Black Knights seized the lead early against the Greene Dragons and never let their visitors get to within better than a three possession lead to improve to 2-0 on the season with a 74-61 win.
“I thought we shot the ball well in the first quarter and it wasn’t just Darius Watson, it was all the guys and so that made a big difference,” said Black Knights coach Mitch Minor. “I thought we played defense well, putting good ball pressure on early and switching and also boxing out. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good job.”
Out of the gate, Charlottesville thrived on turnovers and quick baskets in transition to turn an 8-3 start into a double digit lead at the midway point of the first quarter. Monroe was able to stop the bleeding out of a timeout and keep pace going deep into the second quarter, but thanks to another run of turnovers and the 3-point shooting of Jamar Pierre Lewis and then Micanopy Girstantas, the Black Knights found themselves up by 19 points going into the break.
“We’re smaller than most teams so we have to get after teams,” Minor said. “For us to have success, we need the turnovers to get more looks, more easy looks underneath the basket to get things in our favor shooting wise.”
In the second half, Monroe was able to break down the CHS lead to single digits on a number of occasions thanks to forward Markel Williams and guard Gary Morris, getting to within as many as eight of the lead late in the third. Needing a run in the fourth, the Dragons tried to apply pressure of their own on the Black Knights, but that wound up putting Charlottesville to the free throw line for almost the entirty of the last frame. But in that stretch the Black Knights knocked down 15 of 21 free throws and had little trouble maintaining its lead to close out the game.
“Our mentality was to get the ball and then push it, get the layups and the quality shots,” Watson said. “Tonight we were just hitting from the beginning so that was a big help. We have really good free throw shooters too, so that kept us (out front) for most of the game.”
On the night, Watson led the way for Charlottesville’s balanced offensive approach, playing mostly in the post and netting 16 points and nine rebounds. In years prior, Watson’s role was knocking down 3-pointers in the corner. That changed Thursday night for sure.
Helping out Watson was Jordan Saylor who had a great all-around game with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists in addition to his role on the press. Isaiah Green added 12 more points. Pierre Lewis and Laquarius Warfield each contributed eight points a piece. Lewis went 5 for 6 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
For Monroe, Williams led the way with 22 points while Morris added 21. But rest of the Dragons managed just 18 points with no other player scoring more than four points. Williams had seven rebounds and Morris hauled in six more. Jo-Jo Krynitsky also had five rebounds.
Monroe (0-1) hosts Luray on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Charlottesville (2-0) heads to E.C. Glass tonight at 7:30 p.m.
