By Nick Eilerson/Scrimmageplay.com Contributor
Mountain View stayed even with Albemarle for most of the night, but the Wildcats turned on the after-burners in the fourth quarter to run away with a 64-53 road victory. The Wildcats employed a relentless transition attack to go along with a hounding zone defense in keeping their distance from the Patriots, who struggled to find open looks at the basket throughout the game.
After a 30-29 halftime deficit, Mountain View switched from a man-to-man set to a 2-3 pressure zone defense. The change stalled Albemarle’s offense by clogging the lane to prevent junior forward Andrew Mann from finding open looks inside, instead forcing him and his teammates to throw up off balanced jumpers. The Patriots succeeded in getting back on defense to halt Mountain View fast-breaks in the first half, but could not sustain the effort in the second half, repeatedly letting freshman guard Lucas Brown and sophomore guard Daesean Hamilton break them down in transition.
“I thought we were doing a pretty good job of penetrating and getting some looks inside,” Albemarle coach Greg Maynard said. “But when they switched to the zone and packed it in, it kind of stopped Andrew Mann’s penetration skills and we had trouble scoring because we weren’t shooting very well. And when they handle the ball the way they did and make their free throws it’s tough to catch them at the end.”
Down 44-40 less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Albemarle senior center Jake Hendrix went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul. Over the next three minutes the Wildcats pushed their lead to 51-40, their largest of the game. A high-arcing 3-pointer from junior forward Jeremiah Morris, part of his 13 points on the night, cut the lead to 58-52 with 1:14 left on the clock. But senior Mountain View guard Jonathan Wilkerson made four of six free throw attempts down the stretch to push his team’s lead to 10 with 36 seconds remaining. Wilkerson and company were able to use their well-oiled transition game to break the Patriots’ full court press down the stretch and earn easy trips to the line to secure the win.
“I thought we had a lot more intensity than we’d had the last few games,” Mountain View coach Kevin Brown said. “So that kind of carried over in all phases of the game. I thought we were pretty aggressive on the offensive end and on the boards.”
Mountain View sophomore Max Beckham was a beast on the glass all night long as he continually snatched rebounds on both ends of the floor. Albemarle’s post players struggled to box out the 6-foot-5 Wildcat center, who scored eight of his 11 points off put-backs. Four Wildcats scored in double figures, including senior forward Anthony Johnson’s team-leading 15, senior guard Cory Royal’s 11 and Hamilton’s 10.
Junior forward Kendall Hawkins posted a game-high 16 points to go along with nine boards, and junior forward Andrew Mann chipped in 12 points. Junior point guard Lee Carneal, meanwhile, dished out five assists for the Patriots.
“We just let everything get to our head, like the little stuff, people pushing and shoving and being aggressive,” Hawkins said. “We’ve just got to put stuff together and fight through everything. We let stuff get to our head too easy.”
Albemarle must now prepare for a Tuesday road trip to Riverbend, while Mountain View will get set for a Friday night matchup against Stafford.
