It had been a long wait for Chris McGahren, but he finally took the floor for Western Albemarle Monday night to a loud round of applause midway through the first quarter.
“It felt great to get back out there and contribute to a win, that’s what I missed most, the camaraderie with the guys and being in the flow of the game,” McGahren said. “It was just great to be back out there.”
During the holiday tournament, McGahren took a shot to the face in Western Albemarle’s game with St. Anne’s-Belfield and he’s been sidelined ever since with a facial injury since. After a lot of rest, healing and slowly working his way back, McGahren returned to the lineup for the Warriors Monday night and he unleashed an assault, scoring 15 points on five 3-pointers in Western’s 63-41 victory over Fluvanna County in the Conference 29 quarterfinals. The Warriors advance to the semifinals where they’ll host Broadway with a region tournament berth on the line.
“It has just been rest and working back to doing things as it’s comfortable,” McGahren said. “So there’s no strict protocol you have to follow. If it continues to feel okay you can keep pushing it while just being really cautious.”
His first bucket came within a minute of entering the game. However, the Warriors’ trio of scorers of McGahren, Ryan Ingram and Josh Coffman still have yet to play a game together in 2017.
“I’d like to get healthy, it was great to have Chris back tonight, but then Josh is out and we’re sort of in the same spot we were all along,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “Hopefully we’ll get Josh back by Wednesday and play with our full deck for a change.”
The Warriors, facing the Flucos for the third time this season, led by just six at the end of the first quarter after a sort of sluggish start, but two McGahren 3-pointers and a Caleb Perez three in the second quarter pushed the lead to 30-16 at the break.
“We were sort of middle-of-the-road in terms of being ready, but we fought through that and got what we had to out of it,” Maynard said.
Ingram finished with 15 points and five assists for the Warriors while senior Austin Cress had 12 points and seven rebounds.
Fluvanna fought and clawed their way to within striking distance twice, playing well for stretches against the Warriors, but the Flucos couldn’t get over the hump and fell, ending the first season in first year head coach Jason Davis’ tenure.
“Tonight was a microcosm of our whole season, we battled our butt off and we’re down by four or six there and then they make two threes in a row,” Davis said. “My guys play hard and they try to do the things that will make them successful but we just didn’t hit enough shots in some of the ballgames we had this year.”
While it wasn’t the year the Flucos hoped for, with a young roster and a number of key returners, the future appears to be bright. Catrel James had 17 to lead the Flucos while Dashon Carte had 10 and A.J. Gregory had nine.
“I waited my whole life for this job, I’m not going anywhere and I’m going to get this back to where it’s supposed to be,” Davis said. “They gave me everything they have and I was proud of the way they played.”
