The Albemarle boys basketball team has played the majority of its season without star center Austin Katstra, who has missed significant time with a sprained right ankle.
So when Katstra aggravated that injury in the second quarter of the title game of the Daily Progress/NBC 29 Holiday Basketball Classic, the Patriots didn’t fret. Behind 13 points from Jake Hahn, Albemarle soldiered its way to a 54-45 win over George Marshall Wednesday night to claim the trophy.
“We’ve been there before. The last tournament we played in, in Richmond, he went down and we kind of fell apart,” Albemarle head coach Greg Maynard said. “We learned our lesson tonight to never give up and to keep battling, and these guys are used to playing without Austin because he’s had to miss so much of the early part of this season.”
After Katstra, who had scored 10 points, went down going for a rebound and was helped off the floor by a pair of teammates with the Patriots clinging to a 22-21 lead, senior Myles Adams-Yates buried two three-pointers sandwiched around a Marshall basket to make it 28-23. The Statesmen scored the final basket of the first half, a half in which neither team led by more than five.
“[Myles] is just all over the place, hustling and diving after balls and knocking down those key threes,” Maynard said. “He just plays with a lot of heart all the time. That’s what I’m used to from him.”
Marshall quickly tied the game out of the gate in the third quarter on a three-pointer by Chase Berrand, who led the Statesmen with a game-high 25 points. Berrand hit six of Marshall’s seven triples on the evening. The third period was similar to the first two, as Marshall tied the game at 33 on another three, this one by Jelani Murray, with 2:49 remaining in the quarter. But Albemarle’s Grant Kersey answered with a trey of his own, and, with the Patriots leading by three, Hahn beat the buzzer for a 40-35 lead going into the final stanza.
Berrand kept the Statesmen close in the fourth quarter, connecting on a pair of triples to twice bring the deficit back to three, but the second one, which came with 3:14 remaining, would be his final basket of the night. Hahn scored another basket and Kersey split a pair of free throws, and the Albemarle defense took over from there, holding Marshall to just one more field goal the rest of the night. Hahn’s two free throws with 32.3 seconds left made the score 53-45 and essentially put the game out of reach.
“Marshall is an excellent team. They’re ranked pretty high in the 5A North,” Maynard said. “So this is a pretty good win for us.”
Hahn was named tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by Adams-Yates and Berrand. Other local players recognized on the boys side included Monticello’s Mallik Barber, Charlottesville’s Caleb Gage and Western Albemarle’s Ryan Ingram.
“It means a lot, it’s a huge honor to have,” Hahn said. “I don’t think I shot the ball particularly well tonight, but we found ways to score. Marshall is probably one of the biggest teams, if not the biggest team we’ll see this year, so it gives us great experience.”
Albemarle finished 4-of-13 from beyond the arc and 12-of-20 from the free-throw line. Despite their size, Marshall struggled to get to the line all night, going 4-of-5 with all of those attempts coming in the first half.
The Patriots will return to Jefferson District competition when they play host to Louisa Saturday afternoon at 2:30.
