It was textbook — exactly the kind of run Nelson County wanted coming out of the locker room after halftime.
“Without that, it’s a lot closer game than it is,” said Nelson’s Brice Wilson. “That gave us some momentum and led us to keep pushing. That stretch was amazing.”
Nelson ripped off seven straight points, forced a couple of turnovers and eventually caused William Monroe to call a timeout. The Dragons refused to go away easily, but that run helped power the Governors to a 53-40 victory over the Dragons.
“That’s the first time we’ve started a second half this year that way and it was big,” said Nelson coach Brian Wilson. “I challenged them in (the locker room) that we needed to start the third quarter the way we’re capable of.”
Brice Wilson finished with a team-high 12 points to lead a balanced offensive effort by the Govs, who also got 10 points from Houston Carter, eight from Jaren Purvis and six each from George Brown and Mason Hughes. While the offense was solid, it was a defense that held Monroe to just 40 points thanks in large part to 12 team steals (spearheaded by Brown’s five thefts on the night) that carried Nelson to the win.
“We’ve been trying our best on defense, getting in the gap, helping our brothers out and just trusting the process,” Brice Wilson said. “It has led to good offense like today. Our chemistry has been great so far.”
Nelson built a 27-17 halftime lead with some of that stingy defense, holding the Dragons, who are still looking for an offensive rhythm with star Logan Barbour still out with an injury, to just seven first quarter points. Troy Jones led Monroe with 11 points on the night while Franklin Lindsey and Tucker Shifflett each had eight.
The Dragons managed to bounce back from that third quarter run and eventually cut Nelson’s 17-point lead to 11 points, but they couldn’t string together enough points to get much closer. A solid stretch of play by Jamel Rose in the later stages of the third where Rose hit a three and then made a slick entry pass to Purvis down low for an easy bucket pushed the lead back out to 16 points.
“Jamel is big-time for us,” Brice Wilson said. “The first game he came off the bench and had a quick eight off the bench. We know that he can do that — he even says himself he doesn’t like starting, he likes coming off the bench, like a Lou Williams type. He goes in there and he eats.”
Purvis’ emergence down low is helping give the Governors some balance to what looked to be a largely guard driven attack between Wilson and Houston, a pair of proven entities that give Nelson an experienced, sharp backcourt. Purvis had 14 boards against the Dragons and was particularly huge on creating second chances as the sophomore forward pulled down nine offensive rebounds.
“He had a great offseason and he got a lot of confidence,” Brian Wilson said. “He came in this summer grown a little bit, jumping a little bit more and much more consistent than he has been.”
The Governors face a quick turnaround with Gretna coming to town Tuesday night. Meanwhile, William Monroe travels to take on Park View-Sterling Wednesday night.
