By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
PALMYRA – Fluvanna County executed its gameplan to near perfection and used a complete team effort as it dispatched William Monroe in its regular-season finale on Tuesday night.
The Flucos went on a fourth-quarter run and clamped down on defense as they hung on for the 59-53 win and secured the regular season Jefferson District title in front of a large, boisterous home crowd.
“We asked the kids to take it one game at a time, and it came down to one game,” Fluvanna veteran coach Munro Rateau said. “We struggled a little bit – they took YaYa [Anderson] away from us — but the rest of the kids stepped up. We had 16 assists and that’s really good team basketball. William Monroe battled right up to the end, but we made our free throws down the stretch and just finished the game.”
Fluvanna (20-1) held a slim, three-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but Desmon Shaver drained a 3-pointer to tie the game with 7:11 remaining.
However, T.J. Dudley answered with a trey at the other end to spark a 9-0 run for the Flucos. Fluvanna got baskets in transition from Josh Hinkle, Jamal Tolliver and Dudley off a couple of nifty passes from YaYa Anderson and took a 50-41 advantage. During that stretch, the Flucos used their zone defense to make some critical stops. Fluvanna held William Monroe to one shot three straight times and got big rebounds from Dudley, Anderson and Tolliver en route to several timely layups.
Shaver, who scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, continued to keep the Greene Dragons in the game with a nice move in the lane with 2:45 to play. The senior converted the free throw to complete the three-point play as the visitors cut the lead to 51-46.
“They have a good shooter in Desmon Shaver and we just had to try to contain him,” said Anderson, who finished with nine points and seven assists. “It’s very hard to stop a player like that but we had to contain him, and that’s what we did at the end of the game. Good teams always execute and that’s what we did to win the game.”
William Monroe got within three points, but could not get any closer as Fluvanna made its free throws down the stretch. The Flucos went 6 of 10 from the foul line in the final 1:53 to seal the win before a huge celebration ensued on the court.
“Fluvanna’s a very good basketball team and we played right with them most of the game. We fell behind 7-0, and you take that away and we’re right in that basketball game,” said William Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “We had a couple shots go in and out and they beat us down the court a couple times. YaYa’s great at pushing the ball and finding his teammates and they got a couple of key layups there and beat us in transition.”
Hinkle paced the Flucos with 17 points, while Dudley finished with 13. Tolliver added nine points and Taylor Lintecum had six.
In addition to Shaver’s strong performance, William Monroe got a boost from Jo Jo Krynitsky. The 6-foot-5 sophomore was effective in the paint and finished with 15 points.
William Monroe will play Friday in the quarterfinals of the Jefferson District tournament. Fluvanna plays host to Western Albemarle at 7 p.m. Friday in the No. 1/No. 8 matchup.
