With a busy Commonwealth District schedule, Albemarle doesn’t get to play its local rivals very often, so it always ratchets up the intensity when it does. After a stinging 66-63 home loss to Commonwealth opponent North Stafford Friday evening, the Patriots were ready to bring it.
With Albemarle operating on a one-day turnaround, cross-county rival Western Albemarle couldn’t handle the Patriots’ intensity or rattle them. In front of a raucous home crowd, the Patriots cruised to a 72-55 victory over the county rival Warriors.
“It was probably good for the players for us to have this game tonight. Rather than break down the film while we’re in a down mood, we were able to pick up the confidence tonight and we can look at how to improve in a good light,” Albemarle coach Greg Maynard said. “Tonight’s game is always one we get up for. Many of our players play with the Western players in AAU and are friends with them. Because of that, there’s a level of comfort and calm we played with tonight.”
A poised Patriots team used a methodical offensive attack to establish the tempo of the game, feeding the ball in the post to its leading forward Andrew Mann, who scored Albemarle’s first four points.
After Western adjusted its defense to respect Mann more and crash the post quicker, the Patriots displayed an effective inside-out game to take command of the first half. Albemarle, in fact, knocked down 12 of its 29 first-half points on three-pointers.
“One thing that’s really important is knowing that we have shooters on this team. Making sure we have the readiness to drive, a consistent inside game, free throws… that’s important. But having shooters is so valuable, it makes decisions to pass the ball easier,” Mann said.
Down 22-15 with a little more than four minutes remaining in the first half, the Warriors started to execute a full-court trap that rattled the Patriots. Drawing turnovers off of the increased pressure, Western closed Albemarle’s lead to 22-20 with 3:30 remaining in the half — the closest the Warriors would get in the game.
The Patriots put together a 7-0 run late in the first half – Albemarle forward Kendall Hawkins scored five of his 14 first-half points in this stretch – and went into the locker room with 29-23 halftime lead.
With Western continuing to play the full-court press, Albemarle used prolific shooting and a crisp transition game to go on a 9-2 run to open the second half.
After the Warriors made additional adjustments to prevent easy transition buckets for the Patriots, however, Western exhibited its own prolific shooting to mount a comeback. Will Donnelly scored nine of his 17 points in the third quarter, including a step-back three-pointer that pulled his team within seven points of Albemarle.
Western closed the Patriots lead to five points on multiple occasions with less than one minute remaining in the third quarter, but Mann drew a crucial and-one basket that expanded Albemarle’s lead back to 51-44 with four seconds remaining in the quarter.
From there, a gassed Warriors team was unable to hold up its intensity in the full-court trap. The methodical Patriots took full advantage, scoring 14 points off transition in the fourth quarter, en route a 17-point victory.
Hawkins, who finished with a career-high 28 points in his team’s win, was impressed with his team’s victory.
“It feels good, (we) always want to get it going against a rival team. The biggest thing though was getting our last game off our minds and just playing our best,” Hawkins said. “Knowing the rivalry between Coach [Greg] and his brother [Darren], it adds to a great game. And I feel like we gave a team effort tonight. It was nice to be shooting well myself, too…”
Western coach Darren Maynard – who has dropped five out of the last six games against older brother Greg – lamented his team’s performance.
“We just couldn’t get the effort up for the entire game. I thought our effort got up to where it was supposed to be for a little stretch there, and we played well for a bit in the second half,” Maynard said. “We made some progress but we were getting a little worn out because we dug such a big hole. The progress wasn’t enough against a good team like [Albemarle].”
