It was an issue of starting strong. In fact, Orange County did just that in the first and third quarters. The Hornets pressed, forced turnovers and turned them into easy baskets. But both of those two runs were followed by big runs from Charlottesville, and after going on a scoring spree to get up big in the first frame, the Black Knights held fast from there, keeping the hosting Hornets at bay for an 80-56 win.
“That was a big win for us,” said CHS coach Mitch Minor. “We got the ball to our shooters. Once we started penetrating we were able to kick it out and hit our shots. It was a good shooting night tonight.”
Tyler Seal’s defense was able to kickstart Orange to a 5-point lead early in the first quarter, but that lead washed away quickly when the Black Knights got hot from beyond the arc to go on a 25-3 run to follow. Damarcus Scott and Darius Watson started hammering away with 3-pointers to reverse the lead, but a pair technical fouls made a bad situation worse for the Hornets.
“The big turning point was the technical foul situation,” said Orange coach Keyode Rogers. “We were down by just a few points and then they got four free throws and hit them all. Then we let their kids catch fire and hit shots.”
In the second quarter, Charlottesville stuck with its hottest hands with Watson continuing to knock down threes and Scott and Devin Turner taking the offense inside to draw in the Hornets defense and create the open shots from outside.
“I haven’t been starting lately so when I got in, it was, ‘I’ma do me’,” Watson said. “I’m a three-point shooter so that’s what I came out to do. The shots were open so I had to do my job.”
On the other end of the court, Orange could not find a steady source of offense, and Black Knights forwards Deshaun Blakey and Daquan Jones cleaned up on the glass to keep the Hornets from second chance points and put their own team in transition to keep the defecit at 18 points going into the break.
The first half of the third quarter belonged to Orange and Seal was again at it defensively in the press and Josh Pugh and Jamal Hunter were able to trim the lead down to as many as 10 points forcing Charlottesville to call a timeout.
“They did a good job of pressuring us there, but I think what got them back in the game there was that when we were breaking their press, we missed all of our layups,” Minor said.
After the short break, Minor’s team went back to what was working earlier, relying on three-point shots and keeping Orange from offensive rebounds. Turner got warm in the fourth quarter and suddenly a comfortable 15-point lead became 20 again and Charlottesville cruised to the win.
“We came out after halftime and looked to get things fixed, but you just can’t spot Charlottesville 20 points and expect to comeback,” Rogers said.
Watson led all scorers with 26 points. Joining him in double figures were Scott with 16 points and Turner who had 14 of his own. Blakey finished with nine.
For Orange, Hunter and Pugh scored 15 and 14 respective points. Seal came away with five steals.
Both teams will be back in action today. Charlottesville (7-3, 4-1) faces a non-district, cross-town rival when it heads to Albemarle at 7:30 p.m.
Orange (7-2, 2-1) gets a chance to rebound with an out of district game against nearby rival of its own with a home game against Madison, also at 7:30 p.m.
