Stories

Champions at last

For video of the introduction of Madison’s starters Saturday, click here. For video of the postgame celebration, click here.

For a story on Madison coach Ben Breeden’s journey to the state title, click here.

RICHMOND — As a young, but confident sophomore Logan Terrell left the gym two years ago after Madison’s season ended in an overtime loss to Buckingham in the regional semis, he made a quick, pointed statement to media members and fans.

“Remember us — we’re gonna be back,” Terrell said emphatically.

He was completely correct. Friday night, Madison completed a 54-1 run over two seasons that now has its own storybook finish — a Group A, Division 1 championship game victory over Altavista in a 41-38 defensive battle.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to win a state championship — we’ve been talking about this how long fellas?,” Terrell said, looking to his teammates during the postgame press conference. “Since we were in sixth grade on the blacktop talking about how we were going to win states some day. And it came true.”

It was an unlikely hero that gave them the bucket that pushed them ahead. Reserve Trey Hensley, a 3-point specialist who played just 11 minutes of the contest, caught a pass in the far right corner with 2:45 to play.

“Jerel was coming down and as soon as he passed it to Trey he said ‘shoot Trey’,” Terrell said. “Early in the game I was talking to Trey and he was like ‘man, I can’t hit’ and I’m like ‘man, it’ll come.’ Luckily he knocked down the shot.”

Hensley buried the 3-pointer, his lone field goal of the game, to break the 34-34 tie, and Terrell pushed the advantage to five with a lay-in of his own. The senior then helped push it back to five after an Altavista score as the middle link in a rapid-fire passing chain from Jerel Carter to Terrell and then over to David Falk who hit an open bucket with just under a minute to play.

“I was worried we were going to get tired, but that fourth quarter went by so fast,” Breeden said. “It would have been nice to ice it a little bit and get a little more cushion, but we just didn’t do it.”

Madison held on to the lead despite missing three straight free throws on one-and-one opportunities down the stretch. It helped that Altavista had to desperately foul repeatedly and burn time doing so because they had just one team foul with a minute to play. The Colonels did manage to come up with a steal by Jordan Jerrell while trailing by just three, but they couldn’t convert.

“We had some chances and that’s all you can ask for in a game like that,” said Altavista coach Mike Cartolaro.

Cartolaro’s squad has been through a tumultuous year. They got a late start because of a state championship run in football, with their first game coming on December 29th. As Cartolaro pointed out, Madison was 6-0 by that point. To complicate things further, Altavista started just 3-3. From that point on, they lost just three games, two of them at the hands of the unbeaten Mountaineers.

Madison did a solid job of moving the ball, tallying 11 assists as a team on just 17 field goals, but struggled to score for the second straight game. Falk, Terrell and Carter had 10 points each while Terell, Carter and Casey Cambell dished out three assists each. Falk led the Mountaineers with eight boards to go with his 10 points.

Madison leapt out to a 13-4 lead to start the game, but Altavista steadily cut into the lead, showing marked improvement from the Colonels frustrating Region B final loss to Madison. Altavista cut the lead to one-point before the break, and both teams traded buckets in the third until Johnny Wimbush hit a bucket with 3.9 seconds left in the third to knot the game at 27-27. Wimbush finished with 10 points while Mike Poindexter led Altavista with 13 points.

Wimbush tied the game again at 34-34, but just minutes later, Hensley knocked down his 3-pointer and gave Madison control.

Madison employed a little zone in the second half, partly to give Altavista a different look, but also to give the Mountaineers a break. Madison’s starting five of Campbell, Carter, Garr, Terrell and Falk played the majority of the minutes as usual, but playing two straight games in two days could have taken its toll on the squad. Madison never appeared tired, exploding and attacking the basket until the final seconds.

Falk was particularly explosive late, and he also got things going early with a dunk on Madison’s first possession. Falk, who’s father Aksel Falk won a state title with the Mountaineers back in 1977, Madison’s lone title, may also have earned the sweetest bragging rights of all with the victory.

“He’s always telling me, ‘you ain’t got the ring yet, you ain’t got the ring yet,’” Falk said. “He can’t say it anymore.”

Not anymore. After a long drought, the state title is back in Mountaineer country.

Comments

comments