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Wythe pulls away from William Monroe’s boys

George Wythe began the second half on an 11-2 run, grabbing control of a close game and advancing to the Region 3B boys semifinals with a 62-45 win at William Monroe Friday night in Stanardsville.

 

The Bulldogs got 24 points from Ikechi Chantilou and 15 from Deshawn Goodwyn while overcoming a game-high 28 from Monroe’s Alex Kinsey, who was one of six seniors playing his final game on Michie Court.

 

Kinsey gave the Dragons a brief one-point lead with a layup to start the second half, but Chantilou along with Kentwan Hubbard engineered the burst while Wythe’s defense held Monroe without a field goal for more than three minutes, eventually taking a 42-35 lead after three.

 

“We settled down,” Wythe head coach Willard Coker said. “When you hear ‘playoffs,’ it adds a little bit of mental pressure. It changes things. At halftime we tried to settle our guys down and they came out and responded.”

 

Goodwyn hit five threes, all in the second half, and he swished one from the left corner with 3:33 to play to give the Bulldogs a 51-39 lead and Monroe didn’t get it back within single digits the rest of the night.

 

“They did a good job in general, a very scrappy group,” Monroe coach Brett Maynard said of his opponents. “Their rebounding and getting loose balls took its toll on us — all credit to them.”

 

The first half was tight throughout, with neither team leading by more than six, a lead the Dragons gained on a slashing layup by Logan Barbour with three minutes to go in the first quarter. But the Bulldogs got seven of the next 10 points to trim Monroe’s lead to 12-10 after one.

 

Chantilou woke up on the offensive end for Wythe in the second quarter, scoring 11 of his output in that stanza. His and-one with 2:22 to play before halftime gave the Bulldogs their first lead since the opening minute at 21-20, and the team’s exchanged baskets from there as Wythe went into the break with a 25-24 lead. The Dragons went just 7-for-15 from the foul line in the first half.

 

Monroe was unable to support Kinsey on the offensive end–their next-highest scorer was Barbour with seven. They went just 2-for-14 from the three-point line while Wythe was 7-for-21.

 

“We changed our defense a little bit,” Coker said. “The one we went to in the second half is designed to pressure the perimeter. [Barbour] and [Kinsey] were hurting us in the first half so we decided to put more pressure on them.”

 

The Bulldogs will meet defending state champion John Marshall in the semifinals.

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