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Airtight: Western boys’ defense locks down Albemarle for key JD win

Photo by Bart Isley

Daniel Brown was fired up.

 

“Dan is always a factor,” said Western senior Gabe Nafziger. “But if he’s like that, he’s hard to stop.”

 

Brown dominated the boards, Tommy Mangrum got it going on offense and Western’s team defense locked Albemarle down Friday night. In the process, the Warriors rolled 50-26 over Albemarle, holding the Patriots to just 15 points over the first three quarters.

 

“It was a colliding of all the factors,” Nafziger said. “It was senior night, huge rivalry game, great crowd — if you don’t play in those games why are you playing?”

 

Brown, a senior post player, yanked down 14 rebounds and notched eight points while providing an electric jolt to the Warriors who jumped out to a 12-4 lead and never really let Albemarle get up off the mat. Brown was key to that effort as his work on the boards made Western pushing out on Albemarle’s perimeter players pay off. Brown cleaned up missed shot after missed shot with 10 of his 14 rebounds on defense.

 

“Our ability to be on the job was really good, especially right out of the gate,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “I’m really proud of Dan and Tommy, we got really out-rebounded in the post the first time (against Albemarle). We wanted to completely flip that and I think we did, it meant something to them and they went after it.”

 

The Warriors got 18 points, seven rebounds and five steals out of Tommy Mangrum while Nafziger finished with 11 points and three assists. But it was the defense that did all the heavy lifting. Albemarle struggled to score early on, trailing 29-10 by halftime. The Patriots have had rough first halves before this season, like the 15-point output against Louisa in early January, but the scoring struggles continued after the break and Albemarle couldn’t claw back into it.

 

“I thought we were pretty much air tight on defense,” Maynard said. “That’s something we’ve grown into…we didn’t do that earlier in the year.”

 

Albemarle got eight of its 26 points from Myles Ward and the Warriors locked down Albemarle’s most potent scoring threat Derrick Jones, holding him to just three points, which came on a bucket beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.  

 

“I give Western a lot of credit, they outplayed us in every phase of the game,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “They played great defense, they hit their shots and took it to the hole and we didn’t have an answer for them. We just didn’t have the intensity.”

 

The Patriots’ own defensive effort was pretty solid — they forced 14 turnovers — but without any sustained productivity offensively, they couldn’t take advantage. Despite the loss to the Warriors, Albemarle still has a shot at a share of the Jefferson District title when they take on Louisa County Tuesday night.

 

Western, on the flip side, took another step forward in an incredible surge of late that started with a huge road upset of Louisa County and a gritty tough win without Mangrum over Charlottesville at CHS. It was clear with an overhaul of the roster after Chris McGahren, Teo Rampini and Jed Strickland graduated after finishing as the state runner-up that Western was going to have to take some time to figure things out. That they’d be better at the end than the beginning, but those three wins, this run may be beyond the expectations of anyone in the Western locker room.

 

“It’s another feather in our cap, another win that proves we can do it,” Nafziger said. “We had a rough start to the season. Then this? We just know we’re ready, we’re ready for the postseason.”

 

Western travels to take on Fluvanna Tuesday while the Patriots lock up with the Lions.

 

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