Trey Hensley lived up to his name Tuesday night.
The Madison senior hit six threes off the bench, doing his part to help the Mountaineers decimate visiting Buffalo Gap 86-32 in the Division 1, Region B quarterfinals.
“I was in the right spots and my teammates found me,” Hensley said. “They gave me the ball and it was going in tonight. It felt good.”
Like many contests this year for the Mountaineers, the win was dominating in every sense of the word. From the opening tip, Madison’s defense controlled the tempo of the game, creating turnover after turnover, which led to basket after basket on the fast break. After the first period, Madison led the Bison 25-4. By halftime, Buffalo Gap had more than doubled its point production but it didn’t matter—Madison led 52-19 at the break.
“We just worked hard and practiced on defense,” said senior forward David Falk. “That’s where we get all our points from. I mean, other than trying to hit threes, we score everything on the break. That just comes from hard work in practice and playing defense.”
With Hensley’s deadly aim, Madison (21-0) got the threes it relies on but produced points in plenty of other ways as well. The fashion in which the Mountaineers won starkly contrasted to the struggle they went through to defeat George Mason on Friday night for the Bull Run championship.
“We really focused on our box outs,” said coach Ben Breeden. “I thought that was something that we really did not do a very good job of [against Mason]. We were kind of just spectating and watching the shots instead of finding a body and getting some contact. [Tonight], they were communicating, getting to the back side, the help side and were very active with their hands. I thought that was a big key tonight—getting their hands on a lot of passes.”
Sounds like the players got the message.
“We watched film, studied our mistakes,” said senior forward Logan Terrell. “Coach told me that I needed to work on my box outs and help defense so that was my main focus.”
Terrell poured in 16 points, behind only Hensley’s 18. Senior guard Jerel Carter tallied 14 and Falk put up 12 to go with 6 blocks. Seniors Chris Michael and Monteria Peyton led the Bison with eight and seven points, respectively.
It was fitting that Madison’s nine seniors filled up the box score as this was the last game they were going to play on their home court. Most of them have been on the team since their sophomore year, bringing fans numerous wins along the way.
“We started here as sophomores and we finished with a bang so this means a lot to us,” Terrell said.
Next up, Madison gets Luray at Orange County High School Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the region semifinals. The Mountaineers have already beaten the Bulldogs twice this season by scores of 63-47 and 77-64.
