The Miller School and Blue Ridge collided Thursday night in the VIC semifinals. A physical matchup between Blue Ridge’s Aamir Simms and Miller’s Tyler Creammer down low ended in a dominant 67-48 victory for the Barons and a spot in the VIC finals.
The Baron defense opened the first quarter with aggression. Simms and Scott Spencer closed down the paint holding Creammer to four points in the first quarter. Offensively, Simms and Malik Johnson supplied points from beyond the arc as well as in the paint. The guard and center combined for 12 points in the first quarter. At the end of the quarter the Barons led the Mavericks 23-11.
“Our identity is how we defend the ball and we always want to pressure the ball as much as we could,” coach Cade Lemcke said. “We knew they would come out with a new way to break our press so we had to make a couple adjustments.”
The Barons slowed offensively in the second quarter as the fouls piled up on Simms and Josh Colon. Creammer found a bit more space in the paint without Blue Ridge’s tallest players on the court. He led a Miller rally with six points in the second quarter as Miller slightly closed the gap, 35-24 at halftime.
“You aren’t going to be successful for a whole game but in different spurts you can rattle off two, four points in a row and next thing you know it is an eight point game,” Lemcke said.
Blue Ridge dominated Miller coming out of halftime though and snuffed out any hope of a Miller comeback. Simms and Colon came back onto the floor and controlled the Mavericks on defense, holding Miller to six points in the third. On the other end of the court Johnson put on a show for the Blue Ridge fans. Drive after drive Johnson knifed his way through the Miller defense. Johnson finished with eight more in the third quarter to extend the Baron lead to 50-30 after the third quarter.
Simms finished the game with 15 points, just behind Johnson’s 19. Creammer led the Mavericks with 13 points in the loss.
The Barons continue on to play Carlisle in the VIC championships while Miller prepares to enter the VISAA state tournament.
