William Monroe was closing fast and Fluvanna County’s boys basketball team was trying to find the right combination to end the run.
Bobby Gardner on the attack and Tyler Coleman and Chazz Barksdale-White lighting it up from outside turned out to be enough of a spark to push the Flucos to a 62-49 over the Dragons.
“They kept us off balance with their zone and we took a minute to figure that out,” said Fluvanna coach Heath Bralley. “We really just had to lock down on our defense and be more patient offensively.”
It’s the second win for Fluvanna over the Dragons this month. The Flucos won by 12 back on December 2 in Stanardsville in the teams’ first meeting.
Monroe closed down a solid Fluvanna lead — the Flucos were up seven at the break and had extended that lead early in the fourth — and trailed just 39-37. Brady Lam and Tucker Shifflett were carrying the offensive load and Fluvanna was locked in on those two with a triangle and two defense intended to force someone else from the Dragons to beat Fluvanna. Shifflett finished with 18 and Lam had 22 points to lead William Monroe.
“We had to really lock down on them and we knew that was the key coming in,” Bralley said.
Once the Dragons closed down the lead, Fluvanna responded with Coleman scoring 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Barksdale-White hitting his second three of the game during an 11-2 stretch that took that two-point, 39-37 lead and turned it into a 50-39 lead. Gardner also attacked throughout that stretch and forced Monroe’s defense to collapse before kicking it back out.
Gardner had to manage playing with two early fouls and finished with 19 points despite that challenge. It was an impressive feat to play through that limitation.
“We got in trouble with that two weekends ago against Lord Botetourt,” Bralley said. “We take him out and he doesn’t like that, but I told him I didn’t take you out the other day and you got five. We need him to be aggressive and so if we can limit his chances of fouling out that’s to our advantage.”
It was also impressive that when Gardner was tethered to the bench, Fluvanna played well as Lance Bruce in particular stepped up with nine first quarter points to make sure things didn’t fall apart with Gardner out.
“We definitely had some guys step up — we can shoot the ball,” Bralley said. “Some guys built some confidence that they should have because they’re good shooters, but they built some in-game confidence.”
The Flucos get a short break before taking the floor January 3rd against Charlottesville on the road. The Dragons, meanwhile, will host Turner Ashby the same night.
