James Collins is a defensive stopper for William Monroe. Saturday in the Conference 28 quarterfinals, Collins came up with a stop that kept William Monroe’s season alive.
Monroe pressured a Brentsville inbounds pass with under a minute to play. Collins swiped the ball near the top of the key, spun and connected on his only bucket of the night to put the Dragons up one. After some more solid defense and a David Smith free throw, Monroe hung on for a 45-43 win and advanced to the conference semifinals.
“It was kind of crazy, when I put it up there I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Collins said. “Then it went in off the backboard and it was crazy. It was a good feeling. That steal was the turning point.”
It was a tremendous play for a sophomore who has been steadily improving throughout the year.
“He’s a really good defensive player and we try and get him any time we have a good defensive situation,” said Monroe coach Brett Maynard. “He really can create some stuff with his defense. For him to come in and get that steal and finish right there that was an amazing lift for us. He’s been getting a lot better as the year goes on offensively.”
Collins’ bucket made the difference because Anthony Terry put together a tremendous 19-point performance. Terry was rock solid throughout, including nine first half points that helped build a sizeable lead for the Dragons before the break. He also helped steady Monroe as things started to come unraveled in the second half.
“Coach said just play through it, he was relying on us to get back in the game,” Terry said.
Terry has emerged this year as an all-around threat for the Dragons and can wreak havoc from pretty much any spot on the floor.
“He does everything for us, he rebounds, sometimes he has to handle the ball a little bit and he obviously attacks the rim and scores really well,” Maynard said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the effort he’s put in all year and his growth on defense from this year to last year.”
Monroe jumped out to a 7-0 lead early on and eventually led 16-5 early in the second quarter before Brentsville finally got on track.
The Dragons were without Kam’ron McCain in the lineup, which put more of the load on Smith, who largely handled it well against a scrappy Brentsville squad. The Dragons tried to shorten the game and run a delay, but without McCain, a major threat to drive and create or score, Brentsville managed to claw its way back into the game after trailing 25-17 at the break.
“With Kam’ron getting hurt and two other kids sick that give us good minutes our offense was just out of the flow,” Maynard said. “That changed things significantly. With (McCain) being hurt it just wasn’t working the way we want it to and I was glad with the way things worked out. But a lot of credit to (Brentsville) they had a good plan. They came at us.”
Malique Shackleford finished with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half. Konnor Pfeiffer led Brentsville with 13 points while Brad Harner had 11.
Monroe advances to take on James Monroe in the Conference 28 semifinals on Tuesday.
