Western Albemarle’s boys size in post has given opposing teams problems all year long.
But not perhaps as much as it did in the second half against Fauquier Tuesday night in the Region II, Division 3 quarterfinal.
That’s when Sam Chisholm took over, scoring 20 of his 23 points after the break to lead the Warriors to a 89-72 victory over the Falcons.
“We kept trying to go inside — we thought we had a nice advantage (there),” said Western Albemarle coach Darren Maynard. “Sam was a little out of focus in the first half but he found his focus in the second half.”
The win pushes No. 1-seeded Western Albemarle into the Region II semifinals where the Warriors will host John Handley Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. with a state quarterfinal berth on the line. Handley beat Fluvanna County 82-69.
“This time of year, you should be playing someone like (Handley),” Maynard said. “I told our guys, that if we win that one we deserve to be in the state tournament.”
While Chisholm did the heavy lifting in the second half and also hauled in 11 rebounds in the game, he was far from the only Western player who found an offensive groove against Fauquier. Chase Stokes poured in 18 points on the night while Eli Sumpter notched 15. In the first Jeremy Baruch was the dominant man in the post, scoring nine points in the first half before giving way to Chisholm down the stretch.
“A lot of these northern teams are really good on offense — they play a lot of high scoring games,” Maynard said. “You’ve got to be able to score with them.”
Western jumped on Fauquier early and built an eight point lead in the first quarter and kept the pedal down in the second quarter to put together a 37-23 lead at the break. While the offense was in sync all night, the Warriors’ defense struggled to slow down Fauquier, in large part because they were seeing a system they hadn’t seen all year.
“They run a really difficult offense to stop, one we haven’t seen all year,” Maynard said. “A lot of Princeton-style backcuts and they also can shoot the three. They’re a pretty good team on offense.”
