Tommy Mangrum apparently decided enough was enough.
With Western Albemarle up just a point at the end of the third quarter, Mangrum ripped off the first six points of the fourth as the Warriors pulled away from Fluvanna County for a 69-58 victory over the Flucos.
“We weren’t shooting the ball too well from the perimeter and coach got onto us about playing bad defense, we were letting too many threes go up,” Mangrum said. “In the fourth quarter we really wanted to pound it inside and get to the basket and it turned out great.”
Mangrum finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds, and 14 of those 30 came in the fourth on putbacks, feeds in system and a eurostep move. It was a dominant stretch during that frame, and with a Henry Sullivan putback dunk thrown into the mix, Western transformed that one point lead into a comfortable margin and held off the Flucos.
“(Mangrum) settled us down and made some big buckets,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “Hopefully it’ll help us going forward to be in all these games, hopefully we’ll start handling them better.”
The Warriors had to shake out of a three-quarter funk that seemed to be a combination of their own inability to pass well, Fluvanna’s defensive scrappiness and the Flucos knocking down nine 3-pointers in the first three quarters. Isaac Rivera buried three of those 3-pointers in the first quarter.
“I thought our physical effort was pretty good but mentally we were really bad tonight, our decision-making was terrible and our passing was really bad but give Fluvanna a lot of credit, they played really, really well,” Maynard said. “We kind of catch everybody’s best.”
The physical effort that Maynard referred to led to five steals by Andrew Shifflett and two blocks each for Sullivan and Joshua Sime. Fluvanna answered with Daniel Campbell coming up with a series of blocks and Kobe Edmonds making several steals up top, a combination that helped Fluvanna match Western’s defensive intensity and hang in the game.
“I was proud of our effort through four quarters, it came down to which team made the most important mistakes, which ones made the most mistakes,” said Fluvanna coach Heath Bralley. “I love my team and they gave such great effort tonight, I’m so proud of them.”
Edmonds finished with 20 points and John Boy Rittenhouse notched 14. Rivera had 12 and Keshawn Fisher had nine.
Western will now turn its attention toward cross-county rival Albemarle while Fluvanna does battle with Louisa County, with both games scheduled for Friday night.
