With Charlottesville trailing by one in the last moments of the fourth quarter, Daquan Jones went to the free throw line to shoot two foul shots. As he went to dribble and get set, the ball came off his hand oddly and hit his shoe and rolled down the paint.
“When I dropped the my ball, I was just like ‘Oh my God,” Jones said. “I was so nervous. In the end though, we made those free throws. We made them when they counted most. It was just a good game all the way through.”
The senior got the ball back from the officials and fired off his first shot which fell straight through the net. His next free throw did the same. Seconds later, William Monroe’s Markel Williams drew a foul and went to the line for two. His first shot tied it, and his second was off ever so slightly, sending the Dragons and Black Knights into overtime. In that final four minute frame, the Charlottesville owned the free throw line, and with Monroe being less fortunate in the same area, the Black Knights escaped their road trip to Stanardsville with a 60-55 victory, but not without compliments for their former Jefferson District foe.
“William Monroe really played inspired tonight and I can see why, I give them a lot of credit, they’re going through a lot,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Monroe. “Defensively, they were great, but they also shot the ball well… (Rickquan Jones and Daquan Jones) they’ve been there before for us in crunch time so I know I can count on them and they came through.”
Thanks to 3-point shooting from Jordan Gentry, Austin Batten and Gary Morris, the first half belonged to the Dragons as they built up an eight point lead in the first quarter and held up in the second quarter to head into halftime up seven.
“I’m real proud of how hard we played, we didn’t back down,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “They made the big plays and we didn’t — we missed three straight 1-and-1’s. You can’t do that in high school basketball.”
While the game was decided by free throws later, Charlottesville didn’t attempt a foul shot until there was less than two minutes on the clock in the third quarter. But during the third, the Black Knights dug into Monroe’s lead behind the play of Daquan Jones, Rickquan Jones, outstanding defense from Jamar Pierre-Lewis to trim the deficit to within two points heading into the fourth.
“You’ve got to do what you can do when your team needs to win,” Rickquan Jones said. “That means staying composed. In the fourth quarter we really played as a team, and that’s something we can’t wait until the end of the game to do, with district play coming up.”
In the fourth, Charlottesville was able to claim the lead at 45-44 for the first time since early in the first on a Damien Miliner basket midway through the period. The next four minutes was a struggle for both squads, but Monroe’s Stacy White put Monroe back up by one with his work down low. Minutes later Jones and Williams’ free throw battle sent the two into overtime.
In the first two minutes of the overtime, Charlottesville built its strongest lead of a the night, a 5-point margin, but saw Monroe surge back to make it a 1-point contest later as Markel Williams and Markel Faulkner hit back-to-back baskets in the key. That was it for Monroe scoring wise. And Charlottesville hit it’s free throws to close out the game.
Daquan Jones led the Black Knights with 15 points. Senior teammate Rickquan Jones added 13 and hit a trio of 3-pointers.Best finished with 10 points and three blocks.
For Monroe, Williams had 14 points. Morris had 11. Gentry hit a pair of three’s to finish with six.
The Black Knights (3-0) heads to R.E. Lee on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
The Dragons (5-2) have a crucial Bull Run District game with Madison County on the road, also Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
