By Drew Goodman / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
With road games against the only undefeated team remaining in the area and and the defending district champion on the docket, Western Albemarle basketball coach Darren Maynard circled the first week of January as one that would test his team. As if facing Charlottesville and Louisa each in a week’s time was not difficult enough, a pair of snow days postponed the contest with the Knights two days.
The change in schedule resulted in a 24-hour period in which the Warriors will face two of the toughest and fastest teams, in Charlottesville and LCHS on the road. Thanks to its senior leader and a host of small contributions across the board, Western cleared their first hurdle on Thursday night.
The Warriors, behind 25 points from Tommy Mangrum, seized control of the heavyweight fight in the fourth quarter, and held on for a 65-62 win over Charlottesville.
Western Albemarle (10-1) led by eight points with less than a minute remaining, but Charlottesville was able to claw back to within three, just in time for the final two seconds to tick off of the clock.
The second half featured seven ties, before Western finally made its move early in the fourth quarter. Trailing 53-51 with six-minutes-and-change remaining, WAHS made a bevy of tough shots as a part of a 10-0 run that took the air out of the Knights’ sails. Sophomore Isaac Sumpter tied the game with a floater in the lane before Mangrum and Andrew Shifflett knocked down triples on consecutive possessions. Mangrum capped the surge with a fastbreak layup, which prompted CHS head coach Mitch Minor to call a timeout to stop the bleeding.
“We played super aggressive in that one stretch where we pulled out to a lead,” Maynard said. “A couple of those shots were those, no no… oh, good shot kind of moments, but we were aggressive.”
He had plenty of help down the stretch, but Mangrum turned up the heat several notches as the teams took the floor in the second half. The senior captain scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter, as he traded buckets with a hot-shooting Charlottesville team.
After going 1-for-2 from the line to start the frame, Mangrum scored from all over the floor for the next seven minutes. The versatile forward buried a second-chance three-pointer midway through the quarter gave Western its first lead of the night, and then staked the Warriors to a 49-46 advantage with a triple on the final possession of the stanza.
Despite drawing a double-team every time he touched the ball, Mangrum was able to get to the rim, and even pull up from way beyond the arc whenever the Knights crowded the lane.
“[Mangrum] is pretty versatile — he’s a tough guard for anybody,” Maynard said. “We liked some matchups inside, so we were able to run some of our stuff to get him the ball inside. Even when he was at the three a little bit, we were able to run some stuff to get him down there, and he popped out and made a couple of threes.”
Mangrum was the only double-digit scorer for the visitors, but several Warriors came close. Riley Prichard tallied nine points, including two important free throws late in the fourth quarter. Austin Shifflett also had nine off the bench, while Sumpter added eight. Western made some clutch shots in the fourth quarter, but its play on the other end of the floor allowed WAHS to finally pull away late.
The Warriors held Charlottesville scoreless for several minutes down the stretch, as one small defensive change helped take away the Knights’ top offensive weapon.
Zymir Faulkner hit Western with a number of clutch shots from beyond the arc, including a buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter, but the Warriors did not give the talented junior much room to breathe in the stretch run of the contest.
“[Faulkner] is a great player, so we ran a little trap on the ball screen to kind of limit his shots,” Mangrum said. “I think everyone on the floor for our team played a great game and I that’s a huge reason why we won is because of our bench performance, and our starters… We held them to [62] points which is pretty low for them.”
Faulkner scored 10 of his 13 points in the third quarter, but did not touch the stat sheet in the final eight minutes. Senior Isiah Washington did an admirable job against Western’s much taller post players, and finished with a team-best, 14 points. Christian Stewart added nine points, while Khishon Gray chipped in eight off the bench, including a circus shot at the end of the first half.
Charlottesville (9-1) used an 8-0 run to close out the opening quarter to build its largest lead of the game, at 21-13. CHS outscored the Warriors inside the paint throughput most of the first half, before the Knights turned to the three-point line for much of the final 16 minutes of play.
As a team, Charlottesville connected on eight three-pointers, including four from Faulkner. Trailing by eight late in the game, Gray hit the final triple of the Knight, and Washington scored on a put-back to trim the deficit to just three points before the final two second ran off of the clock.
Charlottesville will look to bounce back after a loss for the first time on Friday against Fluvanna. The Warriors are back in action with the aforementioned showdown at Louisa.
“It would be amazing if we could do both of them… To go to two chief rivals that are undefeated in the district on back-to-back nights on the road it’s pretty tough, but at least we got the first half,” Maynard said.
