It was more than fitting for Christian Pierce to put the icing on the cake – after all, he scored all of his team’s first quarter points. With Orange County surging back into the game late in the fourth quarter, Pierce did just that on a breakaway by throwing down a dunk to put his team up by three possessions with a little over a minute to play. The lead would hold and Western Albemarle walked out of Orange with a 54-40 lead.
“I was cherry picking a little,” Pierce said. “And then Travis Hester got me the ball and I put the ball on the floor once and went straight to the basket with it.”
It was a big night for the senior guard. He led all scorers with 34 points and hit 15 of his 17 free throws. Not only did he score all of his team’s 14 first quarter points, but at halftime he accounted for 20 of the team’s 26.
“You can’t let him get going like that early in the game,” said Hornets coach Keyode Rogers of Pierce. “It’s kind of like trying to stop a freight train. It takes a long time.”
The Warriors held an eight to 10-point lead for almost the entire game, but behind Travis Braxton and Tyler Seal, Orange made it a game in the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to five points with a little over two minutes to play.
Just seconds before Pierce’s dunk, the Hornets had a breakaway that looked like it would make the contest a one possession game, but wound up turning the ball over.
After that Orange was never able to recover and Western thwarted the Hornets’ attempt to foul their way back into the game.
While Pierce did nearly all the heavy lifting on offense, he had plenty of help on defense with teammates Jake Nidiffer and Cody Davis playing soundly, much to the delight of their coach, Darren Maynard
“We’re really starting to lock teams down on defense,” Maynard said. “We’ve talked about how when you play that kind of defense it gives you great opportunities to win when you’re not having the best night shooting.”
The Warriors have now won four straight after starting the season by winning two of their first five contests.
“I think we’re finally starting to play the kind of basketball that we thought we were capable of,” said Pierce.
Western (6-3, 2-1 Jefferson) will travel to Fluvanna County on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
For Orange, Seal finished with 13 points and five steals. Braxton had 10 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers.
The Hornets (5-5, 2-2) will head to Charlottesville on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
