YaYa Anderson’s taken a lot of free throws, but not quite like this. After forcing a turnover with the game tied, Anderson drew a foul with just two tenths of a second to play on the road against William Monroe.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been nervous like that before a free throw,” Anderson said. “They’ve got a great crowd.”
He only needed one to get the job done, and he got it. However, for more than a minute before that, the Flyin’ Flucos were on defense wondering if they would even see the ball again as the Greene Dragons tried take the last shot in regulation, forcing a trio of Monroe time outs. Just before Anderson came up with the big free throw, he forced a turnover and recovered the ball with 6.9 seconds left. In the end, Fluvanna County walked out of Stanardsville feeling pretty good with a 52-51 victory.
“We’re thrilled with the outcome because William Monroe gave us a great effort,” said Fluvanna coach Monro Rateau. “Our kids gave great effort too though and it was just a great high school basketball game. We just ended up with that one more point than they did. We’re ecstatic about having a win tonight.”
Turnovers were big the Flucos. Thanks to four straight steals to start the third quarter, Fluvanna went on a 10-0 run to go from down by four to up by six midway through the frame.
“Defense won us this game,” Anderson said. “I think once we figured out that free throws can win us games too, we’ll be a lot better team — we missed too many in the first half. But today defense got the job done.”
From that point forward, the teams traded blows, ever so slowly until a Desmon Shaver 3-pointer and two Markel Faulkner baskets underneath tied the game up with 1:45 to play.
The Dragons came up with a stop on Fluvanna’s next possession to set up the furious last minute finish that left one side celebrating, and the other side miserably frustrated.
“It’s just a shame that a game like that had to come down to a call at the end of the game,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “On the (turnover) there was a pile up and no call, but then with two tenths left you get a whistle. That’s frustrating, but of course we didn’t play very well in the third quarter and we let them back into the game.”
Monroe established control early, running their offensive sets slowly but surely and conversely, slowing down Fluvanna with a two-three zone. With Shaver, Faulkner and Ryan Omohundro the Dragons went up by eight points with a minute left in the first.
After the slow start, Fluvanna came to life at the end of the first and just a few minutes into the second the game was knotted up. Monroe rebounded from the slip and was able to get out in front by four points before the break with players like Jordan Gentry and Jo-Jo Krynitski providing timely baskets.
With the defense providing all kinds of opportunities, Jamal Tolliver tied the game up early in the third quarter. From there Anderson piled up the points with Taylor Lintecum, TJ Dudly and Jordan Green chipping in as well. The Flucos led by eight points minutes into the fourth quarter until Monroe surged late to tie.
Anderson led all scorers with 24 points and also had six rebounds and three assists. Tolliver finished with 10 points and three steals. Green gave Fluvanna three different players with three steals. Of course, no steal was bigger than the last of the game after the Flucos played a full minute of defense as Monroe looked to milk the clock down to nothing and take one last shot.
“Give credit to the kids,” Rateau said. “We asked them to do one thing, they forced a timeout. We asked them to do something else defensively, they drew another. Then YaYa came up with the big steal.”
For Monroe, Shaver had 16 points. Faulkner had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Flucos (11-1, 5-1 Jefferson) host Goochland on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The Dragons (9-5, 2-4) will also be at home on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and face off against Western Albemarle.
