In the season opener for both teams two weeks ago, William Monroe felt as though they left something on the floor against Charlottesville. Now on their home court and coming in winners of their previous two contests, the Dragons were able to avenge the early December loss as they stifled the Black Knights defensively to the tune of a 44-22 win.
“Tonight I thought we were fantastic defensively,” said Monroe coach Phillip Lamb. “Our rotations were good. Rebounding, we didn’t give up those second chance opportunities either. That was key and that’s something we emphasize everyday in practice.”
Point-forward London Todd and forward Sydney Calloway were instrumental in Charlottesville previous over Monroe, but this time the Dragons defense was all over both players, limiting the powerful duo to just seven points combined, forcing the offense to come from somewhere else for coach Dee Mitchelson’s team.
“It was definitely not our night, and as a problem solver, I had to ask after the game what was that?,” Mitchelson said. “We just never picked it up, offensively or defensively. We had good ball pressure, but never rotated over helped on the pass. We started out in zone, they shot well so we went to man and then we were just reaching in or getting beat.”
Defensively the Dragons flourished early behind the play of Alexa Smith who shadowed Todd to start and finish the game. Monroe also got five rebounds out of Tiffany Snead in the game’s first four minutes, and with Alex Cave, Brianna Allen and Summer Tarpley offering balance on offense, the Dragons rolled out to an 11-3 lead late in the first quarter.
“We always work on our defense in practice,” Allen said. “Thankfully our shots fell in, but we’ve been really working and counting on our defense lately.”
With Charlottesville relegated to just about only free throw attempts in the second quarter, Monroe held their lead comfortably going into the break up by nine points and went up by 16 to start the third quarter.
The Black Knights got two quick baskets moments later to cut the lead to 12, but that was as close as they could get to the Dragons with the home team staying locked down defensively and keeping the visitors from any kind of run, or really any kind of offensive flow for the rest of the game.
“We knew they were going to put us in a lot pick-and-roll action and we planned coming in to trap it,” Lamb said. “If they came off the pick, we trapped the ball handler and came off that weak side rotation. Last game against them, we didn’t do that and they just ate us alive with it. Fortunately for us tonight, we were better at it. With London Todd, we also kept an eye on her at the perimeter. Alexa, she did a great job. I could not be happier overall with the way we played defense.”
Calloway led Charlottesville with five points and was the only Black Knight with more one field goal. Todd, still found a way to contribute with a game high eight rebounds.
For Monroe, the scoring was balanced with Allen and Cave netting nine points each. Tarpley had eight points. Eight different players had at least three points. Carrie Doyle tied Snead with a team best six rebounds.
Charlottesville (2-1) hosts R.E. Lee on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Monroe (3-4) gets Madison County on Wednesday at home, also at 7:30 p.m.
