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Mountaineers pick up coveted win over Dragons

Photo: Brian Mellott

UVA Primary Care Madison

 

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The easy thing to do was to focus on the fact that Madison County had not won a game against William Monroe since 2010, the year the program went unbeaten and won a state title. Of course, for Isaiah Smith, Dre Tywman and Dylan Breeden — the junior class leading the way this year for the Mountaineers — they were in fifth grade back then. To them, the streak the Dragons have on them is just two years old. No, what really mattered for this Madison team was that it was coming off its first loss of the year on Tuesday at home against an unbeaten George Mason squad and the Mountaineers had to turn around and hit the road in another packed gym, this time on the road against its famed Bull Run District rival.

 

“We were just as curious as coaches as everyone else — how would our kids bounce back?” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “We wanted to see what the energy level was going to be, the intensity was going to be.”

 

It did not take long for the Mountaineers to answer their coaches’ question as they scored three seconds into the tip off and never trailed. With a 10-2 start to the contest, Madison simply outraced the Dragons in the first half, and did a solid job of playing with the lead in the second half to cruise to a 52-32 victory.

 

“We definitely wanted to control the speed of the game, make our shots and set our defense,” Breeden said. “I thought we did a great job of making them try to play faster, getting the ball out of their playmakers’ hands and getting the rest of their kids to take shots. We did a good job of finishing in transition, getting to the basket.”

 

Out the gate, Madison saw its perimeter game lead the way as the Mountaineers knocked down a trio of first quarter 3-pointers to go up 18-10.

 

“You don’t want to live by the three, but it’s nice when you make a couple of shots,” Breeden said. “It takes some pressure off on the other end so you can get back and play defense. Definitely helped tonight, getting those good looks early.”

 

From there, the Mountaineers’ offense transitioned as Smith’s ability to create drives inside and Breeden’s paint presence established a frenetic pace. While the scoring was relatively low thanks to a handful of length possessions late in the second, Madison went into the break up healthy, 27-14. It was a struggle for both teams at the line in the first half with the Dragons knocking down just a pair of their 11 attempts while the Mountaineers didn’t exactly excel either as they went 2-for-6.

 

“We didn’t make a 3-pointer all night and went 2-for-11 at the line the first half so it’s hard to win a ball game doing that,” said Monroe coach Brett Maynard. “To Madison’s credit though, they’re athletic, a good team and they made it hard to score. I was impressed with them.”

 

In the third quarter the Dragons managed to get to within nine points of the lead with Anthony Terry coming alive offensively and Monroe finally collecting at the free throw line.

 

“We showed some grit by battling, but we just looked worn down,” Maynard said. “I still thought we did a good job defensively. I don’t think (many) have held Madison to what we did tonight. They score a lot in transition off of our turnovers. But we’ve got to improve offensively, that is our priority at this point now.”

 

The Mountaineers have only scored fewer than 55 points three times this year, with a 58-55 win over Page in early December and a 47-39 win over Strasburg being the only two other games. Unfortunately for Monroe though, that nine point deficit was as good as it would get from there it was all Madison the rest of the way. With Twyman and Breeden taking over inside and Smith distributing, the Mountaineers took a 15 point lead into the fourth quarter and never looked back.

 

“We’ve been waiting a long time to win this game against them,” Smith said. “To do it by this margin, that’s big for us.”

 

On the night, Smith led the way and was one of three to finish in double figures with his 15-point, five assists and four steals. Breeden put together a 14-point and 13-rebound effort. Twyman had 10 points and four blocks.

 

“It just feels great, I really don’t know how to describe it,” Twyman said. “To be playing this well, win this game, it’s just exciting.”

 

For the Dragons, Terry led all scorers with his 20 points. Kamron McCain finished with seven points.

 

Monroe (9-5) travels to Skyline on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. while Madison (14-1) gets a bit of a break as host Clarke County on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.

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