Defensively, William Monroe did all it could to make sure that Madison County’s Bobby Ford didn’t get many clean looks at the basket. The other half of the focus was trying to make sure Mountaineers forward Matt Temple didn’t own the paint. Ford hit his looks when he had them, and Temple found a way to make his presence known despite being pounced by multiple Dragons whenever he had the ball or was headed for a rebound. But on the other end, Monroe had too many role players cash in on open shots in the first half, and then in the second half, Gary Morris and Markel Williams went to the basket with either a basket or a foul drawn simply too many times. Throw in a great two-way game from Jeff Early and the Dragons maintained their unblemished Bull Run District record with a 70-49 win over rival Madison.
“They’ve improved and they’ve got two good players that are hard to guard,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “I thought in the third quarter, Markel Williams really stepped up and we got him the ball more. We’re a pretty good shooting team but you can’t live and die on jump shots all the time, sometimes we forget about him and I thought in the third quarter we did a good job of getting the ball to him.”
The first quarter was a great offensive showing for both sides and Madison got off to a 6-2 start, but saw Monroe answer with 13-5 run to claim a 2-possesion lead and a Williams buzzer beating 3-pointer giving the Dragons a 7-point lead. Combined, 41 of the game’s 119 points came in the first frame.
“We came out trying to play team defense and then also get Markel the ball because he had the hot shooting hand, so we just kept feeding him,” Early said. “In practice we worked on help defense (to defend Temple) and that’s what we had to do tonight.”
Monroe inched its way through the second quarter to claim a double-digit lead, and came out of the break hot to claim a16-point lead. After that swing of momentum to start the second half, Madison made a solid push to trim the deficit to nine points thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Ford and James Graves.
“We kept fighting and battling which I like about our kids, we just couldn’t get the stops of the defensive end,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “We couldn’t get anything to bounce our way (and) keep the momentum going for us.”
The story of the second half was Monroe attacking the basket so often that it found itself in the bonus midway through the third quarter. Behind Morris, Williams and Early, Monroe went to the rack again and again continuing to pile up the fouls.
“They had it going attacking the basket tonight,” Breeden said. “With Markel in the second half, they really spread us out nice and took advantage of it.”
With turnover troubles, the Mountaineers managed just seven points for the rest the way through while the Dragons ratcheted up their lead slowly but surely, taking a 20-point lead early in the fourth and keeping the distance for the rest of the way through for a comfortable win.
“You just can’t settle for jump shots, you’ve got to keep going to the rim,” Williams said. “That’s what coach told us and so we just kept going to the rim.”
Three Dragons finished in double figures with Markel Williams leading the way with 20 points. Morris wasn’t far off with 19 points. Early added 11 to go with eight rebounds. Austin Batten added six on a pair of 3-pointers.
For Madison, Temple had a big night with 16 points and eight rebounds. Cory Lichliter had 10 points. Ford finished with seven fueled by two three’s. Graves also had seven points.
Monroe (15-3, 10-0) heads to Clarke County on Friday at 7:30 p.m barring weather, otherwise the game will be on Saturday.
Madison (5-13, 3-7) travels Rappahannock on Friday at 7:30 p.m, but that’s also weather permitting.
