William Monroe’s defenses have always changed moment-to-moment under coach Mike Maynard yet during his time, there’s one thing he’s never done, and that’s run a 2-3 zone from start to finish. Facing a similar guard heavy personnel, the game plan for the Greene Dragons coming into their road contest with Monticello was identical to the one they played against Charlottesville last Friday in a loss.
The result? Decidedly different.
Monroe sat back on defense and rebounded, then turned around and pushed the ball up court and ran its offense through its own guards en route to a convincing 76-60 win over the Mustangs.
“The strategy was pretty much the exact same as we had against Charlottesville — pack it in defensively and make them hit jump shots,” Maynard said. “That’s the only chance we have against teams like that. If they hit shots, we’re in trouble. If not, we’ve got our chance. The big thing that was different though was that we could score tonight. So we were able to stay in that defense and we did it the whole game. I’ve never done that before in my life as a coach, and sometimes you have to be hard headed, it’s okay.”
Behind Jahvon Shelton, James Banks and Jhalil Mosley, Monticello trimmed a 9-point lead going into the third quarter down to six points and entered the fourth trailing by seven with a bit of momentum behind it.
“We picked it up on defense there, and with what we have right now, our defense leads to our offense,” said Monticello coach Robert Shelton. “We don’t have a lot of time in right now practice-wise, so we’re playing a bit off instinct, but I’m going to take care of that as we install more of the system. They’re playing hard, we just need more consistency.”
Monroe’s Jordan Gentry all but swiped that away for good in the opening minutes of the final frame, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, a layup off a steal and a pair of free throws to catapult his team to a 17-point lead. On the other side of the court, the Dragons’ defense came up with one stop after another.
“In the fourth we said ‘no more.’” Gentry said. “We buckled down on defense and made it happen. That’s what wins games and that’s what we did.”
And while Monticello was able to work that deficit down to 11 late in the fourth quarter on the hot 3-point shooting hand of Denzel Terry, Dragons forward Markel Williams, who dominated the glass in the game, was able to draw enough fouls and hit enough free throws to keep his team out in front for good.
Before Gentry got hot in the fourth, the Dragons rode Williams and sophomore guard Austin Batten on offense. With Williams having his way in the paint, Batten provided big shots from beyond the perimeter. That duo gave Monroe a 7-point lead at the end of the first and the 9-point margin at the break.
“Coach has been telling me that it’s my role in the paint to rebound and hit shots underneath,” Williams said. “So that’s my job and I’m really trying to do that.”
Conversely, Monticello stayed in the game in the first half with Mosley in foul trouble thanks to Banks. In the second half, it was Shelton’s game down low that put them within striking distance of the lead midway through the third. However, before Terry went on his late fourth quarter tear (12 points in the frame on a quartet of 3’s), Banks, Shelton and Mosley were responsible for all but seven of their team’s points.
“We’ve yet to put a full game together, all four quarters,” Shelton said. “That mirrors our practices right now. We’ve got to put it together.”
Batten lead Monroe with 18 points and had four shots fall for him from beyond the arc and he also scooped up six rebounds.
“He brings a lot,” Gentry said. “He’s just a lights out shooter and when his feet get set, it’s going in. And his defense is great too. He’s got good hands and helps out with the steals.”
Gentry poured in 13 points. Williams finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Gary Morris provided a huge boost off the bench for the Dragons with strong play in transition that helped him finish with 12 points.
Terry finished as his team’s leading scorer with 14 points. Banks wound up with 13 points, as did Mosley, despite being saddled with foul trouble all game. Shelton added 13 points as well with three field goals and seven made free throws.
Monticello (1-3) hosts Courtland on Friday at 7 p.m.
Monroe (2-2) plays host to Stuarts Draft on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The previous meeting between those two saw just under 200 points in what sets up to be another barn-burner with Draft’s VMI influenced offense and defense.
