For the first 23 minutes of the game, it was like a slowly developing chess match between Fluvanna County’s Munro Rateau and Western Albemarle’s Darren Maynard. The two coaches had their teams playing extremely tight defense and running their half court sets slowly, but surely.
As such, there were 12 lead changes between the Flyin’ Flucos and the Warriors, but a late third quarter turnover followed by a buzzer beating shot wound up swinging the momentum in Western’s favor. Though Fluvanna would mount a last minute comeback, the Warriors hit enough of their free throws to keep their opponent at arm’s length and advanced to the Jefferson District title game with a 52-45 victory on Wednesday night.
“The steal at the end of the 3rd quarter, the three point shot and then the dunk to follow – that realy swung the momentum,” Maynard said.
Late in the third quarter, Western was able to extend its 1-point lead to four when Travis Hester hit his first 3-pointer of the night. And with just a few ticks on the clock, Hester struck again with a steal of a Fluvanna inbound pass followed by a near half court shot that passed straight through the net.
With their opening possession of the game, the Warriors suddenly had 7-point lead when Dante Crawford – who barely played because of foul trouble – scored his only field goal of the night with a thunderous dunk.
The Flucos spent all of the fourth quarter trying to close in on the lead, and with 34 seconds to play, a Zach Miller 3-pointer got Fluvanna to within three points. However, the Flucos were forced to foul and put Cody Davis and then Christian Pierce on the line. The two wrapped up the game at the charity stripe.
“He steals the ball and then hits a 60-foot shot, that was a head’s up play,” said Rateau of Hester’s game changing play.
But much of Fluvanna’s problems came on their own end as shots that they were hitting in the first three quarters didn’t fall in the fourth, and behind its size, Western scooped up the rebounds.
“Sooner or later the ball has to go into the hoop,” Rateau said. “Western played great defense, they always do. I don’t know that anyone in the district that plays it quite like they do.”
Cody Davis had a lot to do with that. The Western senior shadowed Fluvanna star YaYa Anderson all night, forcing the talented point guard to work the ball to his teammates.
“Whenever there’s a defensive assignment it goes to Cody Davis,” Maynard said. “I thought he played a great game.”
Christian Pierce, who was honored before the game as the JD player of the year, showed exactly why on both ends of the court, with his 22-point, 14-rebound performance, and the usually calm senior could be seen pumping his fist and thumping his chest as the Warriors fought hard for the win.
“I felt like we didn’t play very well in the first half,” Pierce said. “I came out in the third quarter a little pumped, so there was some chest beating and stuff. We felt like as team we needed to just put together a run.”
Hester was the only other Warrior to find double-figures. The sophomore finished with 15 points on the night.
For Fluvanna, Anderson scored 13 points with Miller just behind at 12 points. Cameron Coles finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
The Flucos will have to wait to see how things pan out in the other districts in the region to see if they will earn a bid in the Region II tournament.
Western will square off against Charlottesville in the JD title game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Monticello. With a Region II bid now in their pocket, the Warriors will look to avenge their two narrow losses to the Black Knights during the regular season.
“We knew they were going to be there in the title game,” Pierce said. “It should be exciting.”
