Coming off a tough loss to Louisa County on Tuesday, Monticello needed a win on the road against second place Charlottesville to avoid falling two games back from the Black Knights and three behind first place Powhatan. For the first three quarters it looked like the Mustangs were well on their way to just that. But a furious fourth quarter rally from Charlottesville made Friday’s finish a lot more interesting than Monticello would have liked.
“That was just like our season’s been all year,” said Mustangs coach Josh McElheny. “It was a roller coaster.”
Not until the final seconds of play was Monticello able to knock down a free throw, but those two converted foul shots from Bridgette Holleran with 3.1 seconds left to play were enough the keep Charlottesville at bay as the Mustangs came through with a 44-39 win over the Black Knights to create a two-way tie behind Powhatan for second place.
“Defensively I thought we got it done, coming up with the stops when we needed them most,” McElheny said. “That game, it made me old early, but I was glad we jumped out to an early lead because we had to hang on. We’re a young team and when it gets late in the game, you wind up holding on to that basketball awfully tight. This was a big win for us. All our games have been back-and-forth. Our mentality’s not that ‘shoulder’s up’ approach yet all the time, and so we just have to believe that we can get it done. This helps.”
Monticello cruised to a 16-8 first half lead, going up by as many as 14 points in the second quarter thanks to its outside shooting from Meghan Comer, Hannah Shepherd and Kristin Histand.
“I missed a couple of early shots but I just had it in my mind that I’d make one and so then I kept shooting and eventually started knocking down some shots,” Comer said. “It was about confidence.”
The Mustangs kept the margin at 14 points going into the break, but Charlottesville came out more effective offensively in the third quarter, out scoring Monticello 14-10 in the period to make it a 10-point game with Sydney Calloway establishing herself in the paint and the all-around play of Kendall Ballard.
After the Mustangs scored five quick points to start the fourth, the Black Knights put together their best stretch of the night by going on a 12-run to get to within three points of the lead with a minute left to play with Monticello struggling to hit the front end of it’s 1-and-1 opportunities. And while Charlottesville had a pair of chances to tie the game, they were un able to do so, and finally Holleran, who was 4-for-4 at the free throw line on the night, went to the line in the last seconds of play and was able to ice the game.
“We had two days to prepare for this and we knew that their 1-3-1 trap was coming, and knew what their personnel was going to do, but we didn’t come out to play early,” said Charlottesville coach Dee Mitchelson. “I finished the night by telling our team to be more like our freshman Kendall Ballard — I never have to ask her to go hard, to crash the boards or anything because she does it naturally and is a natural competitor. We’ve gotten lucky against Louisa County and Albemarle being able to pull it out late, but tonight we couldn’t wave the magic wand and make it happen.”
Holleran finished with 13 points on the night while Comer added 11. The rest on Monticello’s offense was evenly balanced with six other different players scoring at least two points.
For Charlottesville, Calloway had 10 points and Nia Johnson, who got hot in fourth during her teams late push, contributed nine points. Ballard scored eight points.
Monticello (7-7, 3-2) heads to Hermitage on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Charlottesville (8-6, 3-2) hosts Fluvanna County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
