It was eerily familiar to the way the first encounter between the two went last year. Blue Ridge had the lead, but Miller had the last shot. This time it wasn’t Mychal Parker taking the shot though, it was Andrew White. Just like Parker did, White got a great look, and half of the gym thought the shot was going to fall through the net. It didn’t and the Barons walked out of Crozet with their perfect record intact, feeling relieved after the 54-52 victory.
“Basically in the whole second half we were pretty sloppy and fortunate to get out of here with a win,” said Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey. “But give credit to our guys, we made enough plays to pull it out… they got a good shot off. It was very similar to last year.”
Until Janeil Jenkins caught fire, things were looking bright for the Barons. Center Isaiah Battle was having his way inside, throwing his weight around and taking advantage of the size differential between himself and the leaner Mavericks. Slowly but surely, Blue Ridge built up a double digit lead by the second quarter, getting up by as many as 15 points.
“When I first saw they had (Brandon Bolden) guarding me, he was way skinnier than me,” said Battle of his initial matchup with the Georgetown recruit. Battle’s headed to Clemson to play football in the fall. “I’m a lot bigger than he is so the plan was from the beginning, get me the ball, get the ball to (Cameron Anderson) because he’s physical and strong too.”
For the first half, Battle was dominant down low, and when given the chance, the center showed some finesse hitting 15-foot jumpers. However, later on, freshman Markell Lodge was able to come off the bench and offer defensive support against Battle, and with Jenkins penetrating and making his circus shots underneath and Chase Cannon successfully launching 3-pointers, the Mavericks clawed their way back into the game.
“We had to adjust defensively, they were isolating him” said Miller coach Scott Willard of Battle. “So we had to adjust, get in some help and get physical.”
The defensive adjustments made all the difference, and although Battle was heavily guarded, his teammates still tried to force him the ball and turned it over in the process to make it a two possession game early in the fourth quarter.
“They were really clogging up the lane and we kept forcing stuff in there anyways and committing turnovers and leaving our perimeter guys were open,” Ramsey said. “We didn’t get them the ball enough, we kept going inside and obviously that was the gameplan coming in, it’s what got us the lead, but then we needed to adjust when they adjusted and we didn’t.”
The Barons were able to stay out in front until just inside of two minutes when Canon tied the game at 50. From there it was a slug fest, with each team committing a turnover they would have loved to have back. Trailing by two inside of a minute Miller made a costly mistake on an inbounds play and was called for a back court violation. However, after the Mavericks fouled and sent Chad Holley to the line who made it a 4-point game, Jenkins cut the deficit to two with 17.2 seconds. Miller then came up with a turnover of their own with 11.3 seconds left.
On the ensuing possesion, after drawing a foul with 5.5 seconds to play, Andrew White went to the free throw line and just narrowly missed his first three throw. White intentionally missed his second to allow his team to grab a rebound and attempt to tie or win the game. The ploy worked when the Mavericks and Barons got caught in a tussell and Miller was awarded possession on a jump ball with exactly one second left to play.
White was able to get the ball on the inbounds pass and had a square look at the hoop, but it kicked out and Blue Ridge survived the scare.
The loss is hard to swallow for the Mavericks given that they worked out of a hole and had a chance to win, but given the Barons’ experience, it’s hard for Willard to be too upset about the end result.
“That’s a great team (we played),” Willard said. “They’re veterans, they’ve been there before. They basically returned everyone from last year from a runner-up team in (VISAA) Division 1… They’re number one in the state for a reason.”
Battle finished with 18 points for Blue Ridge. Anderson, Holley and Malick Kone put forth eight points.
For Miller, Jenkins led all scorers with 21 points. White had 11 while Canon added 12 and hit a trio of 3-pointers.
The Barons (9-0) head to North Cross today at 4:30 p.m. in what will be their eighth road game of the season.
Miller (5-6) gets another tough test when they travel to play a highly regarded Christchurch team Saturday at 6 p.m.
