It started with a whisper.
It ended with a victory for Monticello boys basketball as the fourth-seeded Mustangs rallied from six points down with under 20 seconds to play to force overtime and won 53-50 over fifth-seeded Fluvanna County in the opening round of the Jefferson District tournament.
With about 13 seconds to go in regulation and Fluvanna up 48-42, Monticello coach Robert Shelton knew the Mustangs needed a spark. He turned to junior Robbie Deane in that moment.
“Thankfully we were on our end because I whispered in Robbie’s ear ‘shoot it’ and he made it,” Shelton said. “The kids never stopped playing hard and everything fell our way.”
Deane buried the 3-pointer right in front of the Monticello bench to cut the Flucos’ lead in half and in turn jumpstarted the rally. On the ensuing inbounds play, Jayden Nixon and Darian Bates collapsed on Fluvanna’s Aamir Sims, who finished with 14 points including 6 for 11 at the free throw line for the Flucos, and forced a turnover. Monticello called timeout and set up a play with two options. The first was Deane again, but if he wasn’t open, he could dump it off to Nixon near the corner. Deane made the pass to Nixon and the freshman nailed it as time expired to send the game to overtime.
“Jayden hit a tough shot, it was defended well,” Shelton said. “He had the confidence to shoot it and he followed through. It’s exciting for our kids, the team and him individually to hit that type of shot.”
In the fourth, Rashad Brooks took control with two big buckets underneath for the Mustangs and another strong effort that drew a foul. Brooks made one of the two free throws and finished with all five of Monticello’s overtime points. He had nine for the game.
Deane finished with seven on the night. Sam Colosuanno notched 12 points to pace the Mustangs and Nixon finished with 11. Savion Thomas had eight points despite fouling out during the fourth.
Fluvanna built a seemingly safe six-point lead after three quarters as Monticello struggled to hit shots and the Flucos played solid defense. When Thomas picked up his fifth foul, Fluvanna seemed completely in control.
But the Flucos struggled to make free throws in the fourth quarter, going 7 for 11 in the fourth and missing several particularly crucial chances.
“If we made our free-throws down the stretch, we win the game,” said Fluvanna coach Munro Rateau. “It’s a learning process for us — I thought we had great effort but we didn’t execute down the stretch and that comes with youth.”
Goddy Flannigan’s game-high 20 points paced the Flucos.
The win earned Monticello a spot in the Jefferson District semifinals where they’ll face top-seeded Charlottesville at MHS Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Fluvanna will turn toward the Conference 23 tournament where they’re slated to face Amherst next week as the probable No. 3 seed.
