This almost certainly won’t be the last meeting with postseason play still looming, but if for some reason it does turn out that way, both Miller and Blue Ridge made this one count.
The Mavericks held on through two overtimes to pull out a 90-83 victory over the Barons, pulling away in the second overtime with a strong performance at the free throw line.
Mychal Parker poured in 28 points, including a 14-for-15 free throw shooting performance to keep Miller in the game, but it was a strong stretch by D’Andre Corbin that kickstarted the closing run. Corbin buried a lay-in on a coast-to-coast run, then hit an acrobatic, falling shot in the lane to give the Mavericks an 80-78 lead.
“That’s the kind of shot that the basketball gods get for you,” Corbin said.
From there, Miller didn’t look back, settling in at the foul line where Hippolyte Tsafack, Parker and Preston Terrell all hit critical shots to extend the lead as time ran out on the Barons. Blue Ridge scratched and clawed to stay with the Mavericks, getting strong nights from Kameron Latouche and Malick Kone. Kone poured in 24 while the lightning quick Latouche finished with 23 points.
Darnell Turner, who had 12 for Blue Ridge even came up with a fantastic putback as the buzzer sounded to knot the game again at the end of the first overtime.
But a series of defensive breakdowns sank the Barons.
“We didn’t stop the penetration, then we left to help on the guard and then we didn’t get the second rotation down to box out on their other big guy,” said Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey. “And then we didn’t get the third rotation down in the paint and they just killed us on the boards.”
Miller got 18 points out of Corbin including a trio of 3-pointers and the hard fought baskets in the second overtime, and he picked up a double double with 11 assists. Preston Terrell came up with 11 points, including a 6-for-8 night at the line. As a team, Miller went 30-for-45 at the charity stripe. Parker buried shot after shot, overcoming a relentless defensive effort from Blue Ridge’s combination of Malick Kone and Andre Roberts.
Tsafack finished with 17 points and 21 rebounds. His performance was particularly impressive because he played with four fouls for about three minutes in regulation and in both overtimes, all the while playing clean, aggressive defense.
“I don’t think so, especially Hipp,” Corbin said when asked if he’d seen a big man play that long with four fouls.
All the while Tsafack’s frontcourt mate, Brice Kofane, was relegated to the bench with 31.1 seconds left in regulation, leaving Tsafack to control the boards without his help. But when he fouled out, Kofane, who had 10 points, made a big time contribution to the team, settling them down in that critical moment.
“Brice took control and said ‘We can win this game with anybody, let’s just do what we always do,” Corbin said. “We took that and just fed off of it.”
Blue Ridge will likely get another shot at the Mavericks, but they’ll have to wait a bit for the VIC and state tournaments to shake out. With Latouche back in the lineup after pulling a hamstring early in the season, the Barons have become more potent offensively, but are still working out some of those defensive kinks.
“We don’t have anybody who can guard him in practice,” Ramsey said. “We just have to keep working on the chemistry.”
