Headlines

Flurry at the Finish: Charlottesville boys slip past Western

 

Nick Motley scored on a driving layup with 7.1 seconds left and Charlottesville escaped Crozet with a wild 56-55 win over Western Albemarle on Friday night.

 

Motley’s shot capped a wild final five minutes which saw four lead changes after Western led, albeit narrowly, for much of the game. The Warriors had just gone on a 7-0 run to take a 50-46 lead on a three by Riley Pritchard with 4:47 to go before the Black Knights swung back.

 

Charlottesville got an and-one from Isaiah Washington and five straight points from Zymir Faulkner to go ahead with just under two minutes remaining. WAHS went back ahead on a stickback by Tommy Mangrum with 16 seconds to go before Motley’s heroics.

 

“Before we called the play, I knew I needed to get the ball,” Motley said. “I had been on fire before that, so I knew it had to be in my hands. I just drove and got hit.”

 

Motley drew a foul on the play, but missed the foul shot. Western grabbed the rebound and called one last play, but a long three from Daniel Brown fell short at the buzzer.

 

Charlottesville forced 14 turnovers, eight of them in the second half, as it used longtime head coach Mitch Minor’s full-court press to stay in the game.

 

“We wanted to keep running them because our bench was deeper,” Minor said. “We thought they’d get a little tired.

 

Western went on a 17-3 run spanning the first two quarters, including a trey from Gabe Nafziger seven seconds before the first-quarter horn. They led 17-8 after one and Elliott Yordy buried a three of his own to open the scoring in the second quarter and push the margin to 12 before Charlottesville woke up.

 

Western hit 5-for-13 from three for the game, while CHS was 8-for-20.

 

Faulkner, who hit four of those threes in the first half for the Black Knights, hit back-to-back treys around three missed Warrior free throws, then sank another to tie it at 24 with just under two minutes to go in the half. Western made four of six free throws in the final 1:37 of the half to reclaim the lead at 28-24 going into the locker room. Three of them came from Mangrum, the lone returning starter from last year’s state runner-up team.

 

“I’m pleased with the trajectory we’re on,” Western coach Darren Maynard said. “We’re young, we’re learning. Right now we’re learning just how hard you have to play. We need to fix how we execute when it really counts.”

 

The third quarter remained close, with Motley heating up for Charlottesville. After being held scoreless in the first half, the sophomore guard hit three treys in the third quarter as Charlottesville pulled even at 41-41 after three.

 

“The last play, we wanted to get to the basket and finish it,” Minor said. “I’m just glad the ball went in.”

 

Faulkner led all scorers with 27 and Motley added 11 for the Black Knights. Mangrum led three Warriors in double figures with 18 as Pritchard and Brown each added 10. CHS turned in a 10-for-19 performance from the foul line while Western went 14-for-22.

Comments

comments