Facing an Orange County squad that’s made substantial improvements from last year, the Charlottesville boys were able to roll to a 72-51 road victory behind strong team rebounding and a balanced, fast-paced attack that saw four different players reach double figures on Tuesday.
“I think what set the tone was our defensive, playing some really good man-to-man and then switching to zone here and there with guys playing really great help defense,” said Charlottesville assistant Andy Jones who was at the helm with head coach Mitch Minor out after an unfortunate loss in his family. “For a little while Orange was driving past us but we met that challenge and then they were shooting well from outside early there but then eventually cooled off and we were able to lock things down.”
The first quarter was back-and-forth and even with both teams running hard in transition. Orange was able to take a 16-14 lead with Jaylen Alexander fronting the load but a 9-0 run with an exclamation mark on an and-1 from Nic Motley to start the second Charlottesville took a 23-16 lead with just under five minutes to play in the second quarter.
“We stepped the defensive intensity up and then started finishing the transition layups,” Motley said. “We got the rebounds, started pushing the ball when their defense wasn’t set and finished.”
With a buzzer beater in the paint from Zymir Faulkner, the Black Knights went into the break up 31-21 thanks in large part to its rebounding.
“We got stagnant in the second quarter,” said Orange coach Adam Utz. “You know what you’re going to get when you play Charlottesville, they’re going to play fast, great team defense. The rebounding was 22-10 at halftime and that’s one of those keys to the game coming in. That, defense and hustle were the three and I don’t think we did those tonight but that’s also a very good basketball team over there. If we clean some of those things up I think we are too.”
The third quarter saw Isaiah Washington make his presence felt inside and with Motley steadily pouring in his points both in transition and with his outside shooting, Charlottesville had a 51-33 lead with 1:13 left in the third.
“They couldn’t stop us in the middle,” Washington said. “We (had) to take our time on offense. We like to pass the ball once and then shoot it. But when Coach tells us to slow down and pass the ball we just get what we want.”
The fourth quarter saw a lot of bench rotation from both sides. Orange’s Raequan Dade help make it a 14-point game early in the fourth but Charlottesville forward Chico Richardson made it 62-41 midway through the frame to help make the win comfortable down the stretch.
“He’s been in the program for a couple of years now and he’s getting in the flow and making his size felt,” Motley said. “He keeps improving and we love it.”
On the night Motley led the Black Knights with 18 points. Washington was close behind with 15 of his own. Faulkner finishined with 12 points while Christian Stewart-Carter added 10 to give Charlottesville for players in double figures.
“We put a challenge on ourselves to win the 50-50 balls and I think the previous games we hadn’t done great there but we did tonight and it led to a lot of offense,” Jones said. “We had a tough team tonight and had to win those and I think we did a good job there.”
For Orange, Jaylen Alexander led the offensive attack with 18 points paced by a trio of 3-pointers. Sihle Mthethwa finished with 11 points on.
“I think we’re learning a lot about us as a team,” Utz said. “We can make some noise but we have to win with hustle, get the 50-50 balls and defensively clean things up, get the backside rotations and keep guys in front. We can guard, didn’t show it tonight but I know when we do that leads us to a lot of points in transition.”
The Black Knights host Albemarle on Friday while the Hornets will jump back out of the district to face rival Madison County at home also on Friday.
