When William Monroe last faced Skyline, it was coming off one night’s rest after another overtime classic with Madison County. The Dragons bounced back from their loss to take down the Hawks by six points. Friday night, facing Skyline again and for the second time in six days and looking to rebound from a regular season finale loss to Central Woodstock, Monroe kicked down the door. It went off, and did so for four quarters to the tune of a 101-61 win in the Conference 28 quarterfinals to open its post season proper.
“We were ready and we’ve been talking about it all week — coming out and taking pride in our defense and just getting after it to make something happen,” said Dragons coach Brett Maynard. “Our seniors stepped up to lead the way but everyone contributed to find a way to make it a solid team effort.”
This was a fast break and layup clinic. With Anthony Terry and Malique Shackelford owning the glass on both ends of the floor and guards Kam’ron McCain and Jayden Anderson proving too quick for the Skyline backcourt to keep up with, Monroe uncorked an 11-0 run to start the first quarter. And up 29-10 going into the second, the Dragons held nothing back.
“It was really good early,” McCain said. “Those guys were making it easy for me, they were finishing. I thought we played really well. The seniors, we realized this could have been our last game, so we wanted to keep our foot on the pedal.”
And Monroe did just that. With no answer for Terry and McCain starting to get going on his own offensively, the Dragons went into the break up comfortably at 50-30.
“We were getting up the court and then playing hard defense,” Terry said. “Having a big lead at halftime boosts our confidence. But we just have to keep stepping on team’s throats when we’re up that much.”
When Charlie Richards got hot from beyond the arc early in the second half, the Dragons officially put the game out of reach. With one of his four 3-pointers on the night, Richards put Monroe ahead 64-32 just midway through the third. And from there, the Dragons worked in their bench and coasted to the win, that is, until the last minute.
With the score in the low 90’s in the last few minutes of play, the Monroe crowd got restless and loud, realizing that the possibility of getting to 100 was attainable. Sure enough, with just 11.9 seconds left, Sal Coyle earned a trip to the free throw line and he buried both shots, much to the delight of the stands. That said, the excitement beforehand didn’t exactly make things easy for the underclassman.
“I was pretty nervous,” Coyle said. “I was shaking, I’m not going to lie. I’m just glad it’s over.”
The free throws put the Dragons into triple digits for the first time since the 2012-2013 season when they played Stuarts Draft and their VMI-style offense in the Region 2A playoffs. Monroe won that game 108-89 and advanced as far as the Group 2A final four that year.
On the night, Terry finished with a game high 28 points. McCain came away with 17 points. Shackelford had 15 points. Anderson finished with 14 despite missing substantial time with some first half foul trouble. Richards had 12 and was 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Now Monroe will get a chance to punch its ticket to the Region 3A East tournament with a win over Riverside whom it will host on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
“We have to maintain our one game focus and just stay true to our values and do what we know we can do as a team,” Maynard said. “We know it’s just going to get tougher from here on out.”
