At this point, the days of being young are over for Miller. With so much expected from this team next year, the Mavericks made a statement this week with a win over Walsingham and now with a VISAA Division 2 semifinal win over Virginia Academy. Why not now? Why wait? Miller made that possible with a big fourth quarter in a true team effort where bench play mattered late in a 69-60 victory. With the win, the Mavericks advanced to the state title game for the first time since the Mavericks won it all in the 2008-2009 season.
“It was just mental toughness,” said Miller coach Danny Manuel. “Don’t play not to lose, play to win. If you’ve got to take a layup to beat this guy (late), let’s do that. It was just being ready when you’re number is called.”
The Mavericks had to crawl out of an early hole with the Patriots taking an 18-13 first quarter lead. Early on, Miller had little answer for center Ejike O’Bima who had 16 of those points. But the Mavericks solved the problem and held him to just 10 points over the next three frames and to just two points in the fourth.
“They were big, agile and could block shots,” said Mavericks sophomore Aundre Hyatt of the Patriots’ front court. “I thought we did pretty well in the first quarter against them but then after that we we really came up and stopped them.”
Miller cut into the lead in the second with DeShaun Wade, Brent Rice and Hyatt all getting going offensively. The Mavericks outscored the Patriots 16-8 in the second to take a 29-26 lead into the break. With Hyatt hitting three of his four 3-pointers in the third, Miller looked comfortable up 39-29, but then a response from Virginia’s Jahlil Jenkins gave the Patriots a 47-46 lead. But it was the last lead for the Patriots.
“It’s amazing, nobody thought we’d be here,” Wade said. “They started getting on a run and coach preaches to us whenever a team gets on a run, you just share the ball, keep playing defense and grow a pair. That’s what we had to do.”
DaeDae Heard, Teemu Tumanoff and Wade answered to start the fourth and make things 55-50. Then Miller saw it’s bench kick in with Jaylin Reed and Josh Leak contribute in transition to make it 62-55 with 2:12 to play. The Mavericks hit six of their last eight free throws down the stretch to keep the Patriots at bay with the game at 68-57 with 29.7 seconds to play. With Virginia unable to get open looks from beyond the arc, Miller was able to run out the clock in the last seconds.
“Everyone is telling us we’re going to be really good next year or even the year after that,” Manuel said. “I don’t want to wait until next year, I’m going to be a year older at that point. No, let’s get it done now.”
On the night, Hyatt led Miller with 19 points while Wade was close behind with 18 and Reed made it three different players in double figures with his 10. Head had seven points while Rice had six.
“When we share the ball we’re a different team,” Hyatt said. “Everyone stepped up, we played as a team.”
The Mavericks will face Blue Ridge for the state championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Virginia State University. It will be the fifth meeting between the two with all five at different locations. While the Barons have won the previous four, the last meeting the VIC championship game last week went into overtime.
“They genuinely believe now,” Manuel said. “That big when you’ve got a lot of 16-year old kids.”
