Western Albemarle’s boys basketball team doesn’t press very often. The Warriors have built their program largely on halfcourt execution on both ends of the floor. But it was clear Wednesday night that when Western finds the right time to press, they will.
“We’re not really known for it, but I think we can do it well,” said Western Albemarle senior Ryan Ingram.
Against Broadway in the Conference 29 semifinals, full-court pressure gave the Warriors exactly what they needed en route to a 65-39 victory over the Gobblers.
“The main thing was we wanted to play with great energy tonight and when we do that we’re really good, we just haven’t done it often enough,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “That was more the key than strategy, the energy level of everybody who touched the floor in the first half was super.”
The Warriors employed an aggressive press and jumped out to a 9-0 lead. An early timeout by the Gobblers (8-15) and a couple of first quarter 3-pointers couldn’t slow down the assault either as Western (20-4) built a 21-8 advantage by the end of the first and a 44-14 halftime lead that they didn’t relinquish.
“Hats off to them, they came after us hard, we looked really flustered and did not look to run our typical press offense stuff,” said Broadway coach Dwight Walton. “We really got out of rhythm.”
The loss puts Broadway into the Conference 29 consolation game where they’ll face Monticello Friday while Western travels to Spotswood for the conference title game Saturday.
Western had its full complement of guards in the lineup together for the first time since December in Ryan Ingram, Chris McGahren and Josh Coffman.
“Josh is still banged up, we weren’t sure he was going to play until right before the game, but it was nice to get them out there a little bit together,” Maynard said. “We’re hoping to do that a lot more going forward.”
Ingram led the Warriors with 12 points against the Gobblers but it was the squad’s forwards, Teo Rampini and Garrett Payne who stepped up with 11 points each. Rampini had seven rebounds to go with his 11 points while another post player, Jed Strickland had eight points and five rebounds.
The second half surge that carried the Gobblers to a win over Fort Defiance after erasing an 8-point deficit in the conference quarterfinals didn’t arrive. But Jameson, Broadway’s freshman point guard, settled in a bit after things spiraled out of control early and finished with a team-high 12 points.
Davis Peltonen and Layne each chipped in six points for Broadway.
