Charlottesville’s Jaylen Hudson draped himself over a Sherando rebounder in the fourth quarter, fouling when the Black Knights didn’t need to and were comfortably ahead in the 72-49 victory, but because Hudson was flat out exhausted.
“He said ‘I was tired’ and I thought I was hearing things,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “But I must have been right and I didn’t say much. He worked his butt off and I was going to sub him out anyway on the next dead ball.”
Hudson had just run a pair of back-to-back, floor length sprints.
“They were beating our press a little bit so I had to sprint back on defense and then I got a run on offense to bring the ball down so I got a little winded,” Hudson said.
Hudson had clearly earned the break over the course of the game, even if he had to force the stoppage himself. The Black Knights had pushed the pace hard on the Warriors since the start of the second quarter with Hudson as the chief architect of the high-paced attack on both ends of the floor with a secondary break and a pressure-centered defense. The approach worked as Charlottesville picked up the 23-point win over Sherando in the opening round of the Region 4A West tournament just two days after falling in the Conference 23 championship game to G.W. Danville.
Hudson poured in 18 points for the Black Knights and helped spark a defensive effort that led to a rash of turnovers and, in turn, fastbreaks. Sherando simply couldn’t handle the Black Knights’ pace despite a strong first quarter start where the Warriors led 15-9. Khalil Vest finished a couple of those fastbreaks and notched 15 points. Vest often gives up some height inside, but with an even matchup in the post on that front, Vest made the Warriors pay repeatedly.
“As long as the matchup isn’t too overwhelming as far as size he does a great job getting the ball in the post and executing little drop steps or turnaround shots and scoring for us,” Minor said. “We took advantage of that today.”
Immanuel Wells and Sam Neale rounded out a balanced offensive effort with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The win kept the Black Knights’ season alive and they’ll now travel Monday to take on Loudoun Valley Monday in the Region 4A West quarterfinals.
“It felt good to get the home win, I didn’t want to end our season that way (with a home loss),” Hudson said. “At the end of the game we pulled through and got the win.”
