The first 14 minutes didn’t go entirely as planned, at least not for Charlottesville. By putting visiting Tandem Friends in the bonus to start the second quarter, the Black Knights had a fight on their hands in the first half of their season opener. However, behind its press and outstanding efforts from sophomores Damarcus Scott and Darius Watson, Charlottesville exploded to start the third quarter before cruising to a 72-40 win.
“We did three things in the second half that were necessary,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “We stopped putting them at the free throw line and we stopped turning the ball over. Then we hit our perimeter shots to open the game up.”
The Badgers found themselves in a bit of a hole early to start as Charlottesville junior Dashaun Blakely was too much underneath and capitalized on his second chance opportunities to give the Black Knights a 10-point lead.
But less than 90 seconds into the second quarter, Tandem was in the bonus and with forward Matt Mahoney shooting well and his teammates making the most of their opportunities at the foul line, it was suddenly a 4-point game.
“We were committing way top many fouls, dumb fouls,” Minor said. “Once we stopped doing that, I thought we improved a lot.”
Moments, later, the Badgers got a chance to take the lead on a technical foul and a pair of fouls in the double bonus, but suddenly the team got cold at the line and hit two of its six chances, much to Tandem coach Reggie Steppe’s disappointment.
“That would have been big, to take the lead right there,” Steppe said. “But we only hit the two shots. If we hit all six, all of the sudden all we’re up and those shots that Charlottesville has to take have a lot more pressure on them.”
The Black Knights reopened the lead to finish the half up by eight, and to start the third quarter, Scott and Watson lead CHS on a 13-0 rally that put the game out of reach.
“That was CHS basketball there,” Blakely said. “That’s what we do. In practice we always talk about going hard or going home. So we tried our best to push the ball down court and get the fast break.”
For the rest of the match, Charlottesville’s defense took over, forcing turnovers and taking them the other way for points underneath the basket. When that wasn’t the case, Blakely got the job done in the rebounding department and took care of business to increase the lead to more than 30 and wrap up the win.
“I’m still very proud of the team for the way they played, especially in that first half against a team like Charlottesville,” Steppe said. “Charlottesville’s so deep and I think our players will see down the road how much this game helps us (with our private school opponents). I think that first half showed that we can compete, that we’re going to compete.”
Mahoney had 11 points despite being double-teamed most of the night. Colin Nail led the Badgers with 17 on 10 free throws in his 11 attempts.
For Charlottesville, Blakely had 18 points and he had six teammates chip in at least six points including Scott. Juan Taylor had eight while Watson finished with 10.
Tandem (1-1) will play at the Highland Invitational on Friday starting at 5 p.m.
Charlottesville (1-0) begins Jefferson District play on Friday at Monticello at 7:30 p.m.
