The tie breaker wasn’t on Albemarle’s side, but the Patriots still needed this one for morale. After a 3-game slide, the last thing Albemarle needed was to hit to the road going into Commonwealth District tournament with another loss. On senior night, the Patriots trailed momentarily in the first quarter against Brooke Point. A run to open up the second quarter gave Albemarle a solid lead it never relinquished as it came out on top to finish its regular season with a 58-49 victory.
“We just had to work the ball (around) against their zone and they also started trapping,” Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “We had lost three in a row so it’s always nice to get a win before you head into the tournament.”
It was the 3-point shooting from Danny Jackson and Logan Ford complimenting Harman Hawkins’ play inside that allowed Albemarle to turn a 12-10 lead at the end of the first into a seven point lead early in the second. From there, the closest that the Hawks got was at the break, within five points behind the scoring of Julian Swinton.
“I think a big part of tonight was that there were five seniors out there who all know each other really well and everyone wanted to share the ball see all of us play well in our last home game,” Ford said. “We were able to hold them back the whole game and I think we were just confident all the way through.”
The second half was a see-saw motion of Albemarle building on its lead to double-digit status with Brooke Point making runs only big enough to make it at best a 3-possesion game. The Patriots balance on offense and ability to break the Hawks trapping press with minimal turnovers allowed them to build an 11-point lead in the third and keep the distance to nine points headed in the fourth quarter.
“We did a great job (of breaking the press) and that got us some easy buckets,” Maynard said. “We struggled with that up there and it was nice to see, even though we beat them up there we had a lot of turnovers. That was good to see, make the right passes, get to the middle and attack. You’re going to score if you make a couple of good passes.”
In the fourth, Albemarle only saw Brooke Point threaten in the final two minutes of play with the Patriots starters coming out to an ovation from its raucous student section. The Hawks again were able to clip the margin down to six points, but with time winding down, Albemarle’s bench held on tightly to wrap up the win.
Six Patriots finished with eight points or better including Ford who led the way with 13 points. Hawkins, Cory Lesher, Danny Jackson and De Mallory all finished with nine points and Mallory netting all of his on a trio of fourth quarter 3-pointers. Hawkins added seven rebounds and two blocks to his night. Ryan Londree had six rebounds to with Mallory’s five. Jackson also had four assists.
Albemarle (12-10, 8-8) finished as the fifth seed and heads to play fourth seeded Stafford on Friday in the CD quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m.
