It was a battle both times when Monticello beat William Monroe in the two regular season meetings. Now a third meeting, this in the Jefferson District quarterfinals, had major implications as both schools look to inch closer to a Region II Division 3 playoff spot. After overcoming a slow start, the Mustangs didn’t have to bite their nails down the stretch as they took down the visiting Greene Dragons, 77-58, after finetuning their defense.
“We broke down the tape from last time we played them and we saw that Syracuase (2-3 zone) defense that we use, our rotation was off,” said Monticello coach Kareem Martin. “So that’s all we worked on the last two days. We’re going to score and we feel like there’s no ifs ands and buts about it. But our problem is that we give up too much. Our problem was the back side rotation was staying too high when they were supposed to slide down and giving (Monroe) too many easy looks.”
The defensive adjustment worked, but took a little bit to get going. After a scoreless first two minutes of the game, the Dragons jumped out to score the games first six points and went on a 9-2 run midway through the first quarter behind the play of Desmon Shaver, Markel Williams and Gary Morris.
But the tide only swung once in the game, and it happened in that first frame when Jhalil Mosley led the way for Monticello on a 14-6 run to give his team a 1-point lead heading into the second quarter. Mosley’s penetration into the paint set up one pull-up jumper after another, and the sophomore kept knocking down the shot that the Dragons kept surrendering.
“That’s where I like to be at all times,” Mosely said. “It was there all night so I kept hitting them.”
Also in the mix was Aaron Stinnie, who’s mid-range jumpers also fell, and as a result, the Mustangs had an 8-point lead early in the second quarter. Monticello went into the third quarter up 10, but couldn’t completely pull away from Monroe as Shaver kept piling up points.
That ended in the fourth quarter though as Mosley got help from junior Kevin Archer, sophomore James Banks and fellow guard Denzel Terry to make it a 20-point game a little more than midway through the fourth.
Mosley had 19 points on the night and also snagged six rebounds. Archer, Stinnie and Terry joined him in double figures with 13, 10 and 10 respective points. Banks added nine points.
For Monroe, Shaver had 19 points to tie Mosley for the game high. Williams scored 13 on the night while Morris came up with 10.
The Dragons (12-11) will await to see if they qualify for a Region II spot.
The Mustangs (8-12) host Fluvanna County on Tuesday at Monticello. The Flucos’ lone JD loss came to Monticello in the two teams’ first regular season meeting.
