Keyode Rogers knows the saying and after living on the 3-pointer in the first half, he sure didn’t want to die by it in the second. On military appreciation night in Orange County, the Hornets coach saw his team heed his advice against rival Madison County to complete a season sweep of the Mountaineers, 61-46.
“The three pointers scared me a bit because I thought we might buy into that the whole game but we didn’t’,” Rogers said. “They listened at halftime and went inside and penetrated which made things better. Down the stretch, the free throws were big. I thought they might foul us early because we hadn’t hit them, then we went 8-10. That was just huge. I am very happy with the results.”
Thanks to six 3-pointers and four in the second quarter, the Hornets were able to take an six point lead in the first frame and stretch it to 13 heading into the break.
“They came out guns blazing and that made it tough to defend because they’re really quick,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “When they started hitting those three we had to extend out and that exposed us.”
In the second half, the Hornets chose to attack the basket and the change in pace helped them add to the margin, making it 49-37 late in the third.
“We tried to pack it in inside because we knew they had some big guys and tried to keep them off the boards,” said Orange’s Jacob Pugh. “We boxed out pretty well tonight. It starts with practice and we work there and try and put it all on the line after that each night.”
When Madison’s Bobby Ford and Matt Temple got some help on the scoring front, the Mountaineers were able to put together their best run of the night which lasted until the midway point of the fourth.
“The kids played hard and battled but we just missed to many shots around the basket early,” Breeden said. “They finally started to miss some shots and we finally started to get them on the boards a bit, but even then we had trouble making the simple plays. That’s just something we’re struggling with.”
In that time frame Madison cut the lead to ten points, but that was close as it could get as Orange simple went to work on the clock and forced the Mountaineers to foul. The Hornets closed out the game by knocking down the free throws to preserve the win.
“We’re just trying to build every night and this was another notch on the belt,” Rogers said. “Hopefully we can carry this into Commonwealth District play.”
For Madison, Temple had a game high 18 points and Ford was strong as well with 17, but only two other Mountaineers scored on the night with Terrence Hill who added eight.
On the other hand, Orange was led by DeAndre Clark who had 15 points. Pugh was next with 14 points, all of them in the paint. Both Damion Clark and J’air Rawlings had 10 points.
The Mountaineers (3-10) hosts Manassas Park on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
The Hornets (5-7) head to North Stafford on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
