Madison County’s boys basketball team just wasn’t in rhythm much of Friday night. Even in the second half when the Mountaineers were attacking the rim, free throws weren’t falling.
But on senior night, Madison stayed close with a strong Rapphannock squad and then hit a different gear in the final four minutes to pull away and gut out a 49-43 victory.
“We really just stuck to our game plan and tried to get the ball in and out,” said Madison senior Jackson Taylor. “Everybody put in work, got rebounds on the defensive end and just stuck it through.”
Taylor buried a three with 3:38 to play to help get Madison on track finally, pulling the Mountaineers within one at 39-38.
That’s when Wade Fox got in the mix. Fox, the Mountaineers’ quarterback, hit a tough bucket in transition and drew a foul on each of them.
“The big kids for Rapp are solid so it takes some strength and Wade is the strongest kid on the team,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “He came through in the clutch in the fourth tonight, especially late in the game.”
After Fox put Madison up, Rapphannock equalized with a free throw and then Dean Breeden came up with a huge 3-pointer, burying the go-ahead shot with 2:30 to play.
Madison struggled from there to put the Panthers away because they continued night-long free throw struggles (10-for-25 for the game), but with 1:03 left, Fox stepped up again. Fincham came up with a rebound, hit Breeden on an outlet and he passed ahead to a streaking Fox who scored and drew the foul again to make it 46-40 Madison. A pair of free throws from Bryce Breeden with 14.8 left to play put Madison up by six and snuffed out any hopes for a Rapphannock comeback.
Bryce and Dean Breeden each finished with 12 points to lead the Mountaineers on offense, while Taylor finished with 10. Andrew Deal led Rappahannock with 14 points.
Having to fight through a frustrating shooting night and find a way to win seemed appropriate on senior night for a group of seniors that have been through so much over the back half of their high school career.
“They’ll probably be the toughest minded kids that we’ve had because of what we’ve had to deal with,” Breeden said. “Through the pandemic and then contact tracing we never knew who we were going to have. They’ve started to come together lately and play hard. I’m just so proud of them because they’ve been through so much.”
Even this year, Madison has been through some significant challenges. The Mountaineers went 20 days without a game around Christmas break, a combination of the passing of athletic director Michael Sacra and contact tracing issues.
In those moments, the seniors have had to lean on one another, which comes pretty naturally to a group that’s known each other forever.
“It’s really hard to explain, I’ve been around these guys since parks and rec. It’s a lot of fun, I’ve known them for so long,” Dean Breeden said. “It’s unexplainable, the bond we have and we share on the court.”
The Mountaineers up-and-down campaign has them sitting in the middle of the pack in the Bull Run District and Region 2B tournaments. The postseason starts next week.
