Greg Maynard and Darren Maynard playing is old hat at this point. The brothers who lead Albemarle and Western Albemarle respectively have been going toe-to-toe for years.
But a matchup of William Monroe’s Mike Maynard and Greg? That’s never happened.
In their first ever clash, Greg Maynard’s Patriots got the better of his younger brother’s Dragons, winning 59-48 in the Daily Progress Holiday Basketball Classic’s third-place game Thursday night.
The third-place game was unfamiliar territory for the victorious Patriots who had competed for the tournament title the past three years, falling in three straight championship games.
“We’re disappointed we weren’t in the championship game,” said Albemarle head coach Greg Maynard. “[But tonight it was about] just not taking these guys lightly; they’ve got a good group A basketball team.”
William Monroe commanded the game in the first half, grabbing an early 3-0 advantage and remaining on top by the same margin at the half with a score of 25-22.
The tables turned in the second half, however, as Albemarle put together a 7-0 run coming out of the break en route to a 41-35 lead at the end of the third quarter.
“I thought our defense was much, much better in the second half; we were just going through the motions in the first half,” Maynard said. “We’re not going to beat anybody unless we play hard defensively, so that’s where we picked it up.”
William Monroe coach Mike Maynard attributed his team’s second half struggles to simple problems.
“We got in a little bit of foul trouble there in the second half. Plus we didn’t execute our offense. We had too many guys try to go one on one; you can’t do that against a good basketball team,” Maynard said. “We missed some early looks early in the second half, and we had trouble containing their best player, Andrew Mann.”
Mann, a senior, led the Patriots with 15 points. The Albemarle offense found new life in the second half, as senior Benny Baranik recorded all of his nine points after the break, and senior Lee Carneal added six points of his own.
With two injured starters, Mike Maynard said he was forced to ask his key players to play more minutes than usual, but senior Markel Faulkner was up to the challenge. Faulkner recorded a double-double, leading all scorers with 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
But Albemarle found a way to control the rest of the Dragons and picked up the third place finish in the process.
“We played three tough games against three quality opponents and you’ve just got to take what we learned from this and what we need to improve on and move back into the Commonwealth District,” Greg Maynard said.
The Patriots (7-4) kick off a segment of the schedule with six straight road games when they travel to Riverbend Tuesday night.
“It’s going to be a tough stretch for us, but we’ll be ready,” Greg Maynard said.
William Monroe, now 8-4, also returns to action Tuesday night, hosting Clarke County.
