A combination of Northumberland’s defense and an initially tough night shooting put a governor on William Monroe in the first half. Still, the Dragons managed to head into the break with a good sized lead. But when Monroe cracked the code in the third quarter, the game was over in a blink of an eye. The Dragons Group A quarterfinal might have started slow, but it finished with a fury to the tune of a 74-44 win to put Monroe in the final four.
“We followed the game plan and tried to keep Northumberland out of the paint,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “Our job was to try and make those guys make jump shots to beat us. We did a good job (there) and we did a good job rebounding.”
The first half was tough sledding for both teams between turnovers and an unforgiving rim, but by holding the Indians to just 13 points in the first two frames, Monroe was able to take a tie game after the first quarter and build a 10-point lead heading into the half.
Then the Dragons simple blew by the Indians. It was Gary Morris and Austin Batten pacing the way in the first half (and Morris missed a good chunk of time with an ankle injury).
“I just came down on (on my ankle) wrong and it got me out for a while but I knew my team would pick up the slack,” Morris said.
After that, Markel Williams and Jeff Early blew up in the second half, leading Monroe to outscore Northumberland 30-10 in the third quarter.
“That 1-3-1 (defense they played) was tough but my teammates had faith in me and I found my spots,” Williams said. “Then I got hot.”
Up by 30 going into the fourth, the Dragons were able to keep a pressing and 3-point minded Indians squad at bay for the rest of the stretch. Monroe was able to work in its entire bench down the stretch to wrap up a convincing first round win.
“We got them out of their 1-3-1 (defense) when we were ahead by about 16 or so and we’re pretty good at attacking man-to-man,” Maynard said.
Despite the Indians shooting just 23 percent from the field, Northumberland coach Michael Stevenson was gracious in defeat and simply threw all the credit to Monroe.
“They came out and played consistent throughout the game,” Stevenson said. “We just played in spurts. We played hard, were aggressive, but they were just better on this day and we wish them luck.”
Three Dragons finished in double figures with Morris leading the way with 17 points fueled by a trio of 3-pointers. Williams added 13 points. Early, just a sophomore put together a 13-point nine rebound effort.
“Coach challenged us at halftime to come out and get every rebound,” Early said. “We struggled in the passing game and attacking the glass so we knew just had to come out (in the third quarter) and get boards.”
Batten had nine points and six rebounds, and his pair of 3-pointers and boards played a large role in keeping the Indians behind in the first half.
“I thought that was one of the best games Austin’s played all year,” Maynard said. “He had a great floor game, he had to play a lot of minutes with Gary being out. I was very proud of him for the game he played.”
Monroe will head back to the Siegel Center at VCU in Richmond on Thursday at 9 p.m. against the winner of Gate City and Graham to be played today at UVA wise.
