A long time ago, Woodberry Forest provided Madison County with its first football jerseys. It’s not been often though that these two schools, one a small rural Group A public school and the other, a giant boarder school by private school standards, have gotten together. On Friday night the Tigers traveled to play the Mountaineers in what looks to be a budding relationship. And behind a deep bench that boasts great height, visiting Woodberry was able to establish an early lead and maintain it on a young and developing Madison squad in a 64-45 win.
“We’ve been playing great basketball lately and that’s because I feel confident putting all 14 guys in the game,” said Tigers coach Joel Justus. “I think we’re subbing right now and its giving us a burst and then also wearing teams down.”
Woodberry jumped out to an early 9-2 run in the first behind the up-tempo play of guards Tim Brisco and CJ Prosise. Once James Long got into the running in the second quarter, the Tigers were able to build a double digit lead that they hold on to for the rest of the night – much to the delight of a team coming of a nail-biting win against Fork Union.
“The Fork Union win was a big momentum swing for us,” Brisco said. “That resilience was the jump start for the weekend. We had to come in here, with a lot fans behind us and so we wanted to make them proud.”
While Travis Warren and Matt Temple each had strong games for the Mountaineers with 16 and 12 respective points, Woodberry’s depth proved to be too much. While Madison got to within 12 points of the lead in the third quarter, the Tigers kept the Mountaineers from getting any closer and established a 20-point lead that throughout the fourth.
“I thought we missed a lot of solid shots in the first team and Woodberry’s a solid team,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “Against a good team you’ve got to take advantage of your shots early and we didn’t quite do that. But our kids didn’t give up and I’m proud of that.”
Brisco was one of four Tigers to finish with eight or better points and led the way for his team with 12. Prosise wound up with 8 points. Long added 10 points while Jack Flournoy added nine. Woodberry had 11 players his at least one field goal.
The Tigers (11-9) jump back into the private ranks against a talented Christchurch team on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Madison (7-14) has a busy start to the week in Bull-Run District play with a road trip to Manassas Park on Monday night – a game that will likely establish the third place team in the Bull Run – and then gets Clarke County on Tuesday at home at 7:30 p.m.
