Western Albemarle’s Christian Pierce wanted to put it in perspective. He wanted to step back, take a look around and make things better for his team, just as he has so many times on the court.
But it wasn’t easy. Not after what the Warriors had just been through.
“When your season ends, you want to look at the whole body of work instead of just the last game,” Pierce said. “I’ve played with these guys for two or three years and I love them, but it’s tough that this loss ends it.”
Western battled back from a 3-point assault by New Kent to take a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, but from there, things unraveled. New Kent switched to a 2-3 trap that accelerated the pace of the game and created all kinds of problems for the Warriors down the stretch, and a late game meltdown made things look much worse than they really were as Western fell 71-55 to the Trojans.
“I actually thought it was a great high school basketball game until the last three or four minutes I even told the kids that at one time during a timeout or it might have been between the third and fourth quarter,” said Western coach Darren Maynard.
Western snagged the lead with a Travis Hester bucket on the first score of the fourth quarter, grabbing a 47-46 advantage. But New Kent senior Everett Christian answered with a 3-pointer from way beyond the arc. Western tied the game on a pair of Hester free throws about a minute later, but the Warriors would never lead again — partially because they went cold, but largely because New Kent’s trap changed the entire tempo, much like Charlottesville’s full court pressure did late in the Warriors’ two regular season losses to the Black Knights.
“I think late it just got kind of hectic,” Pierce said.
New Kent slowly built an eight point lead over that stretch as Western went scoreless. The Trojans’ run included a 3-pointer by Steven Allen, New Kent’s leading scorer and the Region I, Division 3 player of the year. Western did an incredible job slowing down Allen with a combination of Cody Davis and Stephen Schuler, but the 3-pointer with 4:20 to play fueled the spurt that put things out of reach for the Warriors.
“We’ve not played anybody all year that was that physical,” said New Kent coach Ed Allen. “But we trapped on made baskets, we got better shots and they lost their composure and we didn’t .”
Christian and Adam Otey picked up most of the slack for Allen, with Christian providing the Trojans with a hard-nosed drive and dish attack in the lane while Otey gave New Kent an electric presence on both ends of the court. Christian finished with 16 while Otey had 15, and both were a big part of New Kent’s 12-for-27 night from the 3-point line. Otey played with three personal fouls for three quarters.
Still, Pierce’s 3-pointer with just over a minute to play cut the New Kent lead to five and gave Western a fighting chance. But what followed left Western alternately frustrated and irritated.
“It’s not what we do, it’s not what we’re about,” Maynard said. “We were frustrated about a few things that I’d rather not go into, but that’s not the way to handle it.”
Dante Crawford got tagged with a technical after he was called for a charge and shortly thereafter, Western was whistled for an intentional and two more technical fouls on Davis followed in an emotionally charged scene. With that series of free throws, all made by Allen, the game was completely out of reach for the Warriors.
Allen, who averages more than 20 points per game, didn’t reach double digits until he started shooting free throws during the scene that closed out the game as Western lost control. He finished with 15 points, seven of them coming on free throws in the final minute.
Pierce finished with 20 points on the night while Hester had 17. Hester shook off some first half nerves to carry the Warriors during the second half as New Kent employed a diamond-and-one strategy for long stretches against Pierce after the senior’s nine-point first quarter. It was near-mirror performance of the way he steadied himself in the Jefferson District title game.
“I thought he was real nervous in the first half and understandably so,” Maynard said. “He settled down nicely and he’s done that in a couple of big games for us. We don’t give up on him, we keep going back to him.”
The loss ends Western’s first run to the state tournament since the 2001 state quarterfinals. The Warriors last made it to the Group AA’s state final four in 1998.
