Xavien Hunter led three Louisa scorers in double figures and Chris Shelton notched his 1,000th career point as Louisa romped 80-54 at home over Chancellor in the Region 4B quarterfinals Thursday night.
Hunter had 25 points, including seven three-pointers, while Shelton added 14 and Jarrett Hunter 11 for the Lions, who will have a quick turnaround when Hanover visits Friday at 7:30 with a trip to the state tournament on the line.
Chancellor hit its first three treys in the opening minutes. They promptly missed their next 17 to close out the half.
The Lions closed the first quarter on a 15-4 run which included Shelton joining the 1,000-point club on a layup with 2:04 to go in the period.
“It felt great, all the hard work paid off,” Shelton said. “But we have a big one tomorrow and we’re going to need to bring the same intensity as tonight.”
Reggie Cosby came off the bench to hit a three in the waning seconds of the quarter, allowing the Lions to open up a 23-15 advantage after one.
“We hadn’t played since last Tuesday,” Louisa head coach Robert Shelton said. “We knew we were probably gonna start a little slow. I think as the game progressed we got better. We knew we were going to make some mistakes playing fast, but we thought that the more possessions, the better for us.”
Xavien Hunter had five treys in the half, two of them in the second quarter as Louisa extended the lead to 36-24 at the break. I would have been worse had the Lions not turned the ball over a dozen times in the half.
“They were open looks,” Hunter said. “I kept getting them, so I kept taking them and they fell.”
The Chargers missed their first three attempts from beyond the arc in the third until AJ Coghill and Shane Batten finally got consecutive ones with 4:43 to go to keep them in range at 43-32. But the Lions cut down on the turnovers after halftime and led by 17 after three, really pouring it on in the fourth, outscoring Chancellor 17-7 in the first half of the quarter to put the game away, allowing both teams to empty their benches at the end.
“I think in the second half our key was rebounding,” Shelton said. “Credit to our big guys, we challenged them at halftime and they came through for us.”
Louisa went 15-for-17 from the foul line and 9-for-23 from distance. On the other side, Coghill led the Chargers with 13 while Anthony Melvin added 12. Batten and Atkinson chipped in seven apiece.
