There wasn’t anything particularly pretty about the first meeting between William Monroe and Madison County, but it also December. The Mountaineers failed to score in the second quarter and the Dragons saw a double-digit third quarter lead get trimmed to a 1-possesion game late in the fourth. But all wins count the same, and with Monroe playing for the seventh time in 11 days, all that mattered was the outcome, a 43-40 victory on the road in Madison to bounce back after falling to George Mason two days prior.
“Rivalry games are funny – we were told we had nine in a row coming into this and getting this 10th one was very difficult because that’s a young team with good guys that are getting better,” said William Monroe coach Mike Maynard.
The first quarter was back-and-forth with the Dragons taking a 2-point lead into the second before things got sloppy from an offensive standpoint. Monroe went through a four minute stretch without a field goal. Madison got its best scoring chances at the free throw line, but by going 0-6 it allowed the visitors go up 24-10 into the break.
“I think we’re growing every game and defensively I think we’re playing pretty well,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “The rebounding was good, it’s just the second part of that that we need to work on – what to do with the ball after an offensive board. We’re getting there. We were just too passive there in the second quarter.”
The Mountaineers started the third quarter with a 10-0 run to make it a 4-point game. The Dragons answered quickly though with a 9-2 run on Anthony Terry’s 3-point shooting to go up 33-22. Madison was able to get James Graves going from the 3-point line to make it a 5-point game and from there, the two squads pretty much traded buckets underneath the basket with Jeff Early doing the job for the Dragons and Dylan Breeden coming through for the Mountaineers.
“The key for us is working inside and then out,” Early said. “We’ve got the shooters on the outside so once we get inside we can get our shooters the ball when they’re square to the basket, make it easy for them.”
Down by five in the final minutes of the fourth, Madison was forced to send Monroe to line. While the Dragons weren’t able to pull away late on free throws, the Mountaineers weren’t able to muster up too much on the other end. An old-fashioned 3-point play from Isaiah Smith with one second left cut the Madison deficit to one possession, but with Monroe successfully inbounding the ensuing baseline play, the game ended quickly.
“I was happy with the defense that Keegan played on Isaiah Smith, really proud how he forced him to the left all game,” Maynard said. “I always liked that Kam’ron McCain was able to follow Graves around and keep tabs on him because he’s got a lot of range, is a really good shooter. We followed the game plan defensively, just didn’t execute too well on offense. We want to keep pounding the ball inside to Jeff but we also need to give him some help.”
For Monroe, Early finished with a game-high 14 points while Terry was close behind with 13. Woolford gave the Dragons three different players to finish in double figures with his 10 points.
Madison was led by Dylan Breeden who had 12 points. Smith finished with 11 points and Graves chipped in eight of his own.
The Dragons (5-2) host Clarke County on Tuesday while the Mountaineers (2-2) travel to Strasburg on Saturday.
