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Eight Deep: Albemarle rolls past Charlottesville in JD semis

Photo by Bart Isley

It’s never clear on any given night who’s about to take over for Albemarle’s boys basketball team and lead the Patriots to a win.

 

But with Albemarle notching nine straight wins, it’s becoming almost predictable at this point that someone is going to do just that. 

 

“We’re so balanced, it’s hard through the course of the season to even tell you who is our best player,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “It varies from night to night, but they’re all pretty good. I think we go eight deep and I don’t think we drop off a lot when those bench guys come in.”

 

Friday night it was La’mari Parler’s turn as the senior scored 22 points to lead the Patriots to a 78-49 blowout Jefferson District semifinal victory. 

 

Parler added three assists to his 22 points and led a balanced offensive effort. Christian Humes finished with 18 points, five assists and two steals, Noah Grevious had 11 points and four boards, Ben Wesson had 10 points and three steals. Carter Wesson only had five points but the senior hauled in 10 rebounds. 

 

“It’s nice having a lot of weapons, we all back each other up in a good way,” said Ben Wesson. “It’s amazing the kind of finishes he does, it’s stuff I’ve never seen before. When he drives in it collapses the defense a lot and it’s really good for us as a team.”

 

Charlottesville struggled to match the Patriots out of the gate and trailed 39-25 at the break. Aiden Yates finished with 17 points for the Black Knights, but buckets were largely hard to come by as the Black Knights either turned it over or took some ill-advised shots that led to easy buckets for the Patriots on the other end.

 

“We’ve played some pretty tough teams so I’m hoping we can put everything together (in the region tournament),” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “We’ve just got to play all four quarters.”

 

The Patriots will now take on Western Albemarle in the Jefferson District semifinals, setting up the fourth and final matchup for Albemarle after the two programs split the regular season tilts and Albemarle won the first clash in the Holiday Classic. 

 

“Western is the most fun game of the year always, so four times is great, I’m excited to get that last one,” Ben Wesson said.

 

Charlottesville, meanwhile, will turn its attention to the Region 3C tournament. 

 

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