Fluvanna County was in good shape despite the fact that YaYa Anderson didn’t have a point until late in the first quarter. It wasn’t a problem, he was hitting his teammates and they were hitting wide open shots. Then Anderson got rolling late in the first frame and all through the second. It was simply too much for Charlottesville to handle. The Flyin’ Flucos did just about everything right in all facets of the game, on offense and defense, and by beating the Black Knights, 57-38, there is only one unbeaten team left in the Jefferson District and it resides in Palmyra.
“That was the best team effort that we’ve had in a long time,” said Fluvanna coach Munro Rateau. “Everybody that played contributed just as much as anybody else. We’ve got some good players on this team, but this is the most unselfish group we’ve had in a long time.”
Jamal Tolliver and Josh Hinkle got the Flucos started, pouring in the first five points of the game and keeping their squad up by four points just a little over mid-way through the quarter. Then Charlottesville’s defense slipped up and allowed Anderson to hit an open 3-pointer. Moments later Anderson finished a layup and freethrow for an old fashioned 3-point play and Fluvanna was suddenly up on their visitors, 19-9.
“We just had to come out with high intensity and that’s what we did from the start,” Anderson said. “We didn’t look back.”
A 3-pointer from Darius Watson at the end of the first quarter had Charlottesville with seven of the lead. They didn’t score for nearly three minutes after that and Anderson, Tolliver and Hinkle piled it on, reestablishing the double-digit lead and went into the break up by 17.
Nothing changed in the third quarter as Fluvanna’s defense forced the Black Knights to settle for long jumpers, and with Charlottesville having its worst shooting night, struggling mightily even when it managed to get inside, the Flucos went up by as many as 25 points.
“We’ve all been playing together for a long time and have great chemistry,” Anderson said before crediting his teammates for their big night. “It’s not just me out there, we’ve got a bunch of good shooters,”
Aarick Greene was finally able to breathe life into the Black Knight offense, but with Tolliver hitting 3-pointers and the Fluvanna bench chipping in its fair share of layups, the Flucos’ lead was more than safe.
“It was a rough night, we might have been lucky to have shot 20 percent (from the field),” Minor said. “And they shot the lights out — they were even banking in 3-pointers. It’s one of those game’s where they did everything right and we didn’t. We knew what to expect — that’s a real good team — we just didn’t execute on offense or defense like we had talked about.”
Anderson led all scorers, passers and rebounders with his 18-point, 9-assist and 8-rebound performance despite not playing in the fourth quarter. The Flucos hit six of their seven 3-point attempts with Tolliver knocking down four of those to chip in 14 points along with eight rebounds and six assists of his own. Hinkle gave Fluvanna three players in double figures with his 11-point game.
For Charlottesville, Greene managed to come off the bench late and almost outscore the entire starting five for the Black Knights with his 11 points. Rickquan Jones had four points and four blocks. Watson finished with six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
Charlottesville (4-1, 3-1) is off until the NBC29 Daily Progress Holiday Classic beginning December 27.
Fluvanna (6-0, 3-0) travels to Cumberland today at 7:30 p.m before it gets a break heading into its Holiday Bash.
