It’s not that Monticello, or really anyone was out of it while we’re still in early January.
Just two weeks into Jefferson District play the only thing certain now is that nothing will be certain.
Western Albemarle traveled to Monticello looking to take a lead on the rest of field after wins over Charlottesville and Fluvanna County. But thanks to an offensive burst from the Mustangs in the fourth quarter in front a raucous crowd, Monticello was able pick up its first JD win and hand the Warriors their first loss on in district play, 61-49.
“It all came down to stops and when we get stops we can flow into our offense better,” said Mustangs coach Robert Shelton. “Those guys, (it was) resilience. They stuck to the plan. Western was able to stop us for a while but after a while things started to open up for us and we got a little lead and then come out and explode.”
After Western Albemarle dug itself out its first hole behind the strength of its post players, a healthy back-and-forth ensued between the second and third quarters. But in the fourth Monticello’s Jahvon Shelton got hot and his teammates followed suit. Or maybe it was the other way around.
“It started out with our guards up top and felt like it gave me the energy to drive, to shoot to get to the basket,” Shelton said. “If they were willing to put in the effort defensively to slow (Western) down I felt like I should be able to get down there and score.”
With Monticello’s defense locking things down at the perimeter, Shelton was able to turn a one-possession game into a 6-point lead. After Western’s Sam Chisholm got the deficit down to four points, Monticello’s Denzel Terry delivered a 3-pointer with just under four minutes left to fire up the crowd and the bench. From there, defensive stops and the Mustangs’ transition game took over with Shelton leading the way and Jhalil Mosley and James Banks also getting in the mix. With a little over two minutes to go the lead was suddenly 14 points.
With Western’s long range shooting coming up short down the stretch, there was no fouling to get back into the contest. Coming off a frustrating showing against Fluvanna on the road, the win over the top team in the JD standings has recharged Monticello, one of the early season favorites to finish out front.
“Our fans are great and we can’t let them down,” Shelton said. “They come out dress up in crazy outfits and so we have to give the same effort, dive on the floor for every loose ball and get every rebound, give every effort. That’s how we come out because of the fan support.”
The Mustangs got off to a great start in the first quarter building up a 10-2 lead with Alex McNair owning the glass. Monticello took advantage of that and held the lead throughout the first half. But after a slow start, Western was slowly able to trim down the lead with Jeremy Baruch establishing his presence in the paint and getting some help from Steven Johnson Jr.
“As much as we talked about it and tried to prepare for it, this is a tough environment when their fans show up like that and that bothered us early in the game but then got a handle up through the third quarter,” said Western coach Darren Maynard.
The Warriors slowed the game down and were able to trim it down to a 2-point lead at the break before Chisholm came in the second half and gave his team a 2-point lead of its own early in the third quarter. With Chisholm doing the heavy lifting offensively from there, it was tight until Shelton broke loose in the forth.
“I think we just lost the toughness battle in the fourth quarter,” Maynard said. “They won all the loose balls and thought it got rough and physical and we just backed off.”
For Western, Chisholm had 15 points, all of them in the second half.
“He was about all the scoring we had in the second half,” Maynard said. “We missed some shots by a lot of people that we’re used to making.”
While the Mustangs held Western to just 10 free throw attempts, the Warriors hit nine of them. Johnson finished with nine points. Chase Stokes and Baruch added seven and six points respectively.
“We’re still in good shape (standings wise) but so are they and so is Fluvanna so we have to learn from this game,” Maynard said.
Shelton finished with a game high 23 points, getting 13 of them in the final frame. Terry added 12 points fueled by a trio of 3-pointers. Mosley finished with 10 points. McNair had six points and seven rebounds.
Monticello (8-5, 1-1) hosts Louisa County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Western (11-5, 3-1) heads to Powhatan on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
