It was exactly what Western Albemarle sophomore Chris McGahren needed to hear.
“During a timeout (assistant) coach (Ben) Keyser came over to me and just said ‘the next one you take is going in’,” McGahren said.
McGahren’s next two in the fourth quarter went in, and they were difference makers as the Warriors pulled away for a 44-38 victory over Albemarle to win the Jefferson District tournament championship.
“I thought he showed some good toughness because he struggled shooting the ball early,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “He never lost his confidence and he made some big ones for us and made some big free throws too.”
McGahren’s 12 points really counted only because the Warriors put together another strong defensive effort against the Patriots. Albemarle struggled once again to score against the Warriors after a frustrating performance just a week ago in both squads’ regular season finale.
“They’re just so tough on us inside,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “They just really play physical on them and our whole offense struggles. We don’t find the open person when they do that.”
Western’s defense was extremely effective against Albemarle once again by throwing a host of different post players at the Patriots’ Austin Katstra and Jake Hahn, all of whom play hard-nosed, physical defense. Katstra managed 10 points while Hahn finished with nine, but much like they did against Western a week ago, they had to work for every basket.
“We’re really good defensively, I think we held them to two field goals in the second half,” Darren Maynard said. “The posts were a big part of that because they want to go to those two, Hahn and Katstra. I thought both the last two times we’ve played them our posts have played some great defense.”
According to McGahren, that defensive intensity has always been a part of the plan.
“That’s where we hang our hat on the defensive end,” McGahren said. “That’s what we knew coming into the season that if we were going to go the places we want to go we had to bring it every night on that end.”
This time around, the Patriots’ defense was nearly equally good as they managed to bottle up Ryan Ingram better than they did in last week’s meeting, holding the Western point guard to 10 points instead of the 29 he poured in against the Patriots in Crozet. After three quarters, Western led just 28-25, and even after McGahren got going from beyond the arc and Michael Vale tacked on a bucket and the foul, Albemarle managed to close the gap back to two points at 36-34 with 2:38 to play.
But the Patriots couldn’t get any closer as the Warriors kept hitting free throws down the stretch and methodically pulled away for the win.
Josh Coffman finished with 10 points for the Warriors. Western will take on Fluvanna in the Conference 29 quarterfinals Tuesday. The Warriors are the tournament’s top-seeded squad, and for his part, Darren Maynard is looking forward to playing a different opponent after playing Charlottesville for the fourth time and Albemarle for the third time this week.
“I’m ecstatic,” Maynard said. “It seems like we just keep turning around and playing the same people over and over again and they’re good teams. It’s like it’s a war every night.”
Albemarle is the No. 1 seed in the Conference 16 tournament, which earns a bye in the conference. They’ll play Wednesday against the winner of Atlee and Patrick Henry-Ashland.
