It didn’t take long for basketball to heat up in Central Virginia.
Not with St. Anne’s-Belfield and Blue Ridge locking up on the second night of the season’s first full week of games.
The Barons withstood a fourth quarter surge by the Saints to pick up the 76-69 victory. Blue Ridge actually built a 15-point lead with just 3:08 to play after STAB closed the gap to just four points. Aamir Sims stepped up in a big way with a 3-pointer and then a one-handed flush to help put the Barons way out ahead for good.
“That was a big shot he made,” said Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey.
Sims picked up big minutes down the stretch with Blue Ridge big man Mamadi Diakite tethered to the bench with four fouls. The contest featured three of the area’s best big men in Blue Ridge’s Diakite and Sims and STAB’s Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier and all three made a mark on the game, battling it out on both ends of the floor.
The matchup between Diakite, a heralded recruit with offers from UVa, Virginia Tech and Loyola and Montgomery-DeLaurier who boasts offers from Old Dominion, Princeton, VCU and others was particularly intense. The two defensive-minded forwards essentially canceled each other out while they were on the floor, with Diakite scoring six points and pulling down seven rebounds while Montgomery-DeLaurier finished with 21 points, 11 of them coming in the fourth quarter where Diakite didn’t play much because of his foul trouble.
It was an impressive performance for Montgomery-DeLaurier, who surrendered at least an inch in height to his counterpart, but showed his ability to take the ball off the dribble and play strong defense against a taller opponent.
“I feel really good and I’m just excited for him, the way he competed from one end to the other both offensively and defensively,” said STAB coach Brian Kent. “I just felt like he played a complete game.”
The Saints got a huge lift from senior Parker Morris who finished with 26 points, including a pair of early 3-pointers in the first half that gave STAB an early lead. Jayden Nixon also played well offensively, checking in with 13 points.
But the Barons continually attacked in transition and created enough opportunities to hold the Saints at bay. Malik Johnson, an ultra-quick guard, was particularly adept at attacking the rim for Blue Ridge and led the Barons with 16 points.
“He’s definitely the spark plug that makes us go because he usually draws a couple of players and that usually gives us some open looks,” Ramsey said. “I think our chemistry will come as we play together a little more.”
Affana Offor got hot from beyond the arc for a critical stretch early in the second frame, where he hit three 3-pointers as part of a big 12-2 run. Offor finished with 14 points and five rebounds on the night.
Blue Ridge swingman Scott Spencer rounded out the bulk of the Blue Ridge scoring with 13 points on the night.
The Barons have made their suffocating man-to-man defense a priority and they’re still putting together some of the pieces offensively, relying largely on the fastbreak or unsettled situations to create scoring.
“Once we start the offense, it’s going to be really good,” Diakite said. “We’re just making progress now.”
The Barons will look to continue that progress when they take on public school Group 3A state runner-up George Wythe this weekend in Richmond with home dates later in December against Virginia Episcopal and Woodberry Forest looming.
The Saints will look to get in the win column for the first time this weekend at home in their first-ever tipoff tournament. They’ll open with Highland Friday night.
