Fluvanna’s Taylor Lintecum didn’t have a lot of time to think it through. He just reacted.
“I was just playing helpside in the middle and he caught the ball in the post, turned left and I knocked it down and grabbed the ball,” Lintecum said. “It happened pretty fast.”
Lintecum came up with a huge block with 20.9 seconds to play against Western Albemarle and drew a quick foul helping Fluvanna County grab a 49-45 victory. The win gives Fluvanna sole possession of first place in the Jefferson District.
“He’s usually one that comes around for us in key game time situations,” said YaYa Anderson. “It’s usually one of the seniors — me, him or Jake (Smith) — one of us on the floor who knows what to do, and that’s what Taylor did tonight.”
Anderson finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds and four assists to lead the Flucos. The senior guard secured a number of crucial boards down the stretch that helped Fluvanna hold off Western’s furious fourth quarter charge. The Warriors trailed by eight going into the final frame, and Fluvanna pushed the advantage early in the fourth to 10 points.
But with about 3:45 left in the game, the Warriors started fouling, forcing the Flucos to the line. The strategy worked almost perfectly as Fluvanna struggled from the charity stripe, going 7 for 19 during the fourth at the line.
“I thought we had to do that at that time and that let us get back in it,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “I thought we played really hard in the second half but we did not in the first half and I’m not really sure why. Our crowd was great, they really energized us. It was a great game, it just didn’t come out the right way.”
Fluvanna’s struggles allowed Western to put together an 11-2 run keyed by a Parker Morris 3-pointer and Ben Turner, who scored six points during the spurt that eventually cut the Fluvanna lead to just a single point. A Will Donnelly bucket closed the Fluvanna lead to 44-43. After Anderson split his free throws, Western had a chance to tie with a two or take the lead with a 3-pointer with under 30 second to play.
But Lintecum proved up to the task though and came up with the monster block and drew a quick foul. He buried both free throws to push Fluvanna’s advantage to four points. The Flucos then survived a pair of Western free throws and a missed jumper with two more free throws from Anderson that pushed the Flucos’ lead back to four points with 4.9 seconds left. A desperation heave and attempt to draw a foul fell short and Fluvanna’s fan base and bench breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“I thought our whole team defense was great tonight,” said Fluvanna coach Munro Rateau. “We adjusted…it was a great team win, this is a hard place to win.”
Fluvanna built its lead with a 19-8 stretch in the second quarter. Vinny Agee got hot during that frame and had seven points during the second, matching Anderson’s output during the same time.
Ben Turner and Parker Morris led Western with 13 points each. Morris buried a trio of 3-pointers, two of them in the opening minutes of the contest, to reach his 13. Turner scratched out his scoring against the tough post defense of the Flucos led by Jake Smith. The Flucos started by fronting Turner in the post but switched to playing behind the Western senior. The approach worked well as Turner had to work for every bucket he got.
Will Donnelly finished with 11 points for Western.
The Warriors will try and hold tight to second place in the Jefferson Friday night against Monticello while the Flucos, now ensconced as the probable JD champion, have to turnaround quickly to face Goochland on the road Wednesday night.
