Despite all the successful seasons in head coach Greg Maynard’s 27 years at the helm, the Albemarle boys basketball team had never reached a state tournament.
Behind 20 points from Austin Katstra, 19 from Myles Adams-Yates and some lockdown defense in the first half, the 2016 Patriots changed that with a 58-45 win over visiting George Marshall on Tuesday night.
It was Albemarle’s second win over the Statesmen this season, the first coming back on Dec. 30 in the championship game of the Daily Progress/NBC 29 Holiday Hoops Classic. On Tuesday, the Patriots took control by holding Marshall without a point for nearly 10 minutes in the first half. After an early three by Marshall made it 6-5 in the early going, the Statesmen didn’t score again until 3:08 remained in the half.
The Patriots systematically pulled ahead by forcing 11 turnovers in the first half. A three-pointer by Adams-Yates and a long two from Katstra gave Albemarle a 16-5 lead before Jordan James ended the Statesmen’s drought, and Marshall managed to cut the lead to 20-12 at halftime.
“Our defense was just superb,” Maynard said. “To hold [Marshall], who has a ton of offensive firepower, to 12 points at half, and then come out as strong as we did in the third, that really won us the game.”
Albemarle opened the second half on an 8-0 run, beginning with a bucket from Katstra followed by consecutive threes from Adams-Yates and Grant Kersey, forcing a Marshall timeout. Tyler White stopped the bleeding for the Statesmen with a basket inside, but Adams-Yates answered with a trey that hit nothing but net and Katstra, who also had seven rebounds, scored again to give Albemarle its largest lead at 33-14.
The run forced Marshall to play catch-up and the Statesmen quickly buried three consecutive threes to trim the lead to 10 with under a minute to go in the third. Two of those came from Chase Berrand, who dropped a game-high 25 points in the teams’ first meeting. This time around, he scored 16, all after halftime, to lead his team once again.
“Coach Maynard told us not to be over-confident because [Marshall] was going to be gunning for us,” Adams-Yates said. “No one likes to be beaten by the same team twice. It’s an elimination game. If you stay even-keeled and don’t get too stressed out about the game, good things are going to happen.”
The Patriots snatched the momentum right back when Cartier Key swiped the ball with Marshall holding for the last shot of the quarter and fed Katstra, whose layup with the foul pushed the margin to 36-23 after three and Marshall got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
“We needed something to stop the bleeding,” Maynard said. “They got hot and there was still a lot of time left in the game. Cartier made a great play. He did a great job tonight. I thought our whole bench did a nice job. That’s what it takes — a whole team getting the job done.
The Statesmen made six of their 10 threes in a fourth quarter that featured 44 points between the teams. Albemarle neutralized that with an astounding 18-for-25 performance at the foul line in the final eight minutes as Marshall began fouling in an attempt to extend the game.
Lost in all the excitement of the Albemarle’s first state title berth under Maynard was Katstra breaking AHS’ career boys basketball scoring record previously held by Jamel Ross, who starred for the Patriots from 1994-97.
The Patriots will travel to top-seeded Potomac in the regional semifinals on Thursday night. Both teams are assured spots in the state tournament.
