It wasn’t a great start for Monticello — a 7-point lead to open the game. But Albemarle responded to the Mustangs early run with a big time run of its own, and while both teams struggled to shoot from the field, the Patriots dominated the offensive glass and were able to cruise to a 49-29 victory to bounce back from their loss on the road the previous day to Mountain View.
It wasn’t flashiest of games, but a win is a win.
“I’ve been coaching long enough to know that some wins are pretty and some wins are ugly and that it doesn’t matter,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “You’ve just got to take them and move along to the next game. But I thought our kids played really hard. We really scrapped and went after offensive rebounds like crazy.”
When the night was over, 10 different Albemarle players tallied a rebound, and three players finished with seven or more boards, while four others had at least three. And so even though it was a tough shooting night, the Patriots were able to clean up with easy baskets underneath the hoop.
“You can’t give up 27 offensive rebounds and win,” said Monticello coach Kareem Martin. “It’s that simple.”
Monticello got off to that fast start, scoring the game’s first seven points and forcing Albemarle to call a timeout just two minutes into the game.
But that early success was short lived. The Patriots went on a 19-2 run immediately after which started from the moment they took back to the floor through the middle of the second quarter. From the early timeout until the end of the first half, Albemarle outscored Monticello 29-6 to take a 16-point lead into the third quarter.
“Basically we just wanted to come out and play harder because of the way we played last night,” said Albemarle guard Mayn Francisco. “Tonight we wanted to come out fired up and come away with a win and a lot of momentum.”
The Mustangs found a way to stop the bleeding in the second half, but their offense never got rolling, and as a result, the closest they could get to the Patriots was within 16 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Only one player from either team found themselves in double figures, and that was Francisco who recorded a game high 10 points.
But as they have all season, the Patriots showed great balance with 10 different players registering a point. Andrew Mann scored eight points off of the bench. Daiquan West had six points and six assists. Rashad Talley was the game’s top rebounder with his nine boards, six of which were offensive.
Senior Paul Harper scored nine points to lead the Mustangs. Terry Glover finished with seven points.
And with his team struggling at the moment, Martin is hoping that this players continue to play with their chins up and not worry about wins and losses.
“Right now, I don’t care if we win another game so long as we continue to play hard,” Martin said. “Right now I’m trying to make sure that our team understands that in life — I’m not even talking about basketball — in life you can’t think that the world is going to fall apart if one bad thing happens. We’re working on that and they’re getting better, but we’ve got to continue to work.”
Albemarle (10-5) will jump back into Commonwealth District play when they head to Massaponox on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Monticello (1-12) heads to Goochland, also on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
