The pace was frantic, albeit low scoring at first. An oversized St. Anne’s-Belfield team had its fits thanks to Charlottesville’s defense early on and had to dig out of a hole. The Saints did so in the third, but saw the Black Knights race back to make it a contest down the stretch. In the end, trailing by one, Charlottesville had a the last shot, but STAB’s defense held firm, didn’t give the hosts an open look and moved on to the championship game of the Daily Progress Holiday Classic with a 50-49 win.
“I think we just gutted it out and kept playing hard,” said Saints coach Brian Kent. “The pace was the big thing. Yesterday was urgency, today was pace.”
CHS got the start it needed with an 11-3 run in the first and while STAB made it a 3-point contest early in the second, turnovers led to the Black Knights going up by nine headed into the half with Leon Straus leading the way.
The third quarter saw the Saints put together a 16-2 run with Javin Montgomery Delaurier taking over on the glass and on the offensive end underneath. As such, STAB went up 34-29.
“It’s the second game in a row where we sort of came out in the first half on our heels,” Montgomery Delaurier said. “And you can’t get away with that against a good team like Charlottesville. That’s going to hurt us. Coach told us that we had to play with pace.”
But the lead didn’t last long. Black Knights forward Troy Hughes took over for CHS in the paint to push his team to a 36-24 lead heading into the fourth.
“He made a lot of baskets for us underneath,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “I wish we would have made more early on because we had our chances. I think their size intimidated us a little bit. That hurt us in the end but we were also 6 for 16 from the line and that was a big difference too.”
From there, it was simply back and forth, mostly at the free throw line. With the game tied at 45 in the last few minutes, the Saints were able to convert at the line to go up 49-47, put couldn’t fully put away the Black Knights. Up 50-49 with 15.9 seconds to go, STAB had to defend Charlottesville’s last offensive attempt and did so by not giving any clean looks at the hoop and almost forcing a turnover in the process.
For Charlottesville, Straus had a game high 22 points while Hughes joined him in double figures with 10.
Montgomery Delaurier had in impressive line with 12 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals. Parker Morris had 10 points. Jalen Harrison added 11. STAB had 15 turnovers in the first half but just five in the second.
STAB faces Western Albemarle in Crozet at 8:15 p.m. Monday for the tournament title while CHS faces Albemarle in the third place game at 4:45 p.m.
