PALMYRA — It was starting to look like déjà vu all over again. Charlottesville found itself trailing by double digits only to erase the deficit by the fourth quarter. But behind clutch free throw shooting, host Fluvanna County refused to be on the wrong end of fairy tale ending like Western Albemarle was last Friday.
With the game deadlocked, the final three minutes of the first meeting between the Flyin’ Flucos and Black Knights went to a balanced Fluvanna squad who picked up a hard fought 82-74 win.
“That was a great team game for us,” said Flucos coach Monroe Rateau. “We had scoring from a lot of people and we knew that if we took care of the ball and didn’t turn the ball over at the top and allow Charlottesville to go on a layup run we had a great chance to win. We did that and we played great and so I’m really proud of our kids.”
Rateau’s squad was able to jump out of Charlottesville early, establishing a double-digit lead in the first quarter behind the play of YaYa Anderson, Brandon Jackson, Zach Miller and Christian Hackenburg.
But facing large deficits isn’t exactly a new phenomenon for this Charlottesville squad, and just as they did against the Warriors on Friday, the Black Knights slowly chipped away at the lead, cutting a 14-point gap to nine at the half before tying the game up in the middle of the fourth quarter with Maurice Jackson’s 3-pointers and Devin Turner layups highlighting the comeback.
As the game wound down to the final minutes, the two squads exchanged baskets, but with less than two minutes, the Flucos were able to create a six point lead on a pair of Charlottesville turnovers.
The Black Knights trailed by four points with fewer than 60 seconds on the clock, forcing them to send Fluvanna to the foul line.
The Flucos did not flinch, and after a few free throws, the game was theirs for good.
“We didn’t panic and that comes back to the (Madison County) game we had last week,” Anderson said. “Tonight we had to calm ourselves down, run our plays and get back into our offense and play how we need to play.”
The sophomore guard led all scorers with his 25-point performance, 13 of which came on foul shots. Miller and Jackson gave Fluvanna three players in double figures. Miller put up 18 points while Jackson shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field to finish with 13 points to go along with 11 rebounds.
While the Charlottesville offense was as explosive as usual, its defense was not.
“One of our of goals is always to keep our opponents under 52 points and obviously we didn’t defend against them very well,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “We just couldn’t get over the hump. I thought we did a good job of getting back in the game, but that first half just killed us.”
For Charlottesville, Jackson led the way with 20 points. Turner finished close behind with 18. Rickquan Jones contributed 12 points. Daquan Jones finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
With the Black Knights finally falling in the Jefferson District, the last two weeks of the regular season should only make a tight situation tighter. Charlottesville now holds a one game lead over Western and just a two game lead over Fluvanna.
Charlottesville (8-6, 7-1) will travel to William Monroe on either Thursday or Friday, pending a decision from the two respective athletic directors, Rick Lilly and Katie Brunelle.
Fluvanna (9-7, 6-3) hosts Cumberland on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
