Western Albemarle’s Ryan Ingram isn’t really a slow starter. He’s doing too many things too well from the opening tip to be classified that way.
But sometimes, the scoring does take a few minutes.
“We talk a lot about that, (we say) ‘try and get an easy one somewhere because once you see that ball go in the basket, it tends to keep going in’,” said Western coach Darren Maynard.
It certainly did Friday night as Ingram poured in 29 points as Western Albemarle beat Albemarle 54-40 in both squads’ regular season finale. Ingram went scoreless in the first quarter, then scored 11 in the second and hit four total 3-pointers. The Warriors’ point guard also pulled down eight boards, including several down the stretch and had three assists and four steals.
Ingram really got going during his own personal 8-0 run in the second quarter that included a steal and coast-to-coast lay-in with a foul and put Western up 24-17.
“The first quarter I wasn’t in a groove really at all but once I had that it just kind of all went in from there,” Ingram said.
Ingram had help too as Western Albemarle’s defense held a usually potent Albemarle offense in check most of the night. The Patriots couldn’t find a rhythm offensively and struggled to knock down shots throughout the game.
“Their whole team took it to us,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “(I’m) dissapointed we didn’t shoot better, if we make some shots at a lot of stretches in that game we can get right back into it but we kept missing and missing. Their defense is tough and then when you do get open looks and can’t knock them down…it makes it a lot tougher to come back.”
Austin Katstra managed to lead the Patriots with 15 points but he had to work for all 15 as the Warriors threw an array of defenders at him all night in an attempt to wear the Patriots’ forward down.
“I thought we played pretty darn good defense the whole game,” Darren Maynard said. “We sort of talked about getting back to playing our way on defense and I thought we did a really nice job of that.”
Of course it didn’t help that the Patriots’ usual sharp shooting was sputtering from the start. Western also had Ingram steadying things on both end of the court as he finished without a single turnover on the night as Western turned a five-point halftime lead into a comfortable victory.
Beyond Ingram’s Herculean performance, the Warriors’ offense was spread throughout the roster. Austin Cress finished with six points and 11 rebounds, Josh Coffman had five points and Chris McGahren had four points. Ten different Warriors scored on the night.
Both teams will compete in the Jefferson District tournament starting Monday with the semifinals, hosted at Albemarle.
