Following a 28-0 season last year that culminated in winning the Class A state championship, James Monroe head basketball coach Matt Sauvage had two goals for his team this year.
“The first goal was to focus on every team that was in front of us. I didn’t care if it was a team that we had already beat twice, we wanted to focus on that team and not look past them,” Sauvage said. “Thankfully that rolled right into tournament time.”
The second goal for the highly touted Mavericks was to make this season their own.
“We are not piggy-backing off of last year. This team needs to create its own legacy,” Sauvage said.
The biggest part of that legacy for James Monroe is winning back-to-back state championships.
After breezing through the sectional and regional round, the Mavericks are now three wins shy of their second consecutive title.
James Monroe enters the Class A boys basketball state tournament as the No. 1 seed and will battle No. 8 seed Cameron at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
“We celebrated Thursday night after the regional win over Greenbrier West and I was watching film about midnight that night,” Sauvage said.
The Dragons come to Charleston with a 14-11 record, but are clearly a team that cannot be taken lightly.
Cameron has two wins over Clay-Battelle who is the No. 4 seed in Class A, as well as a win over Trinity Christian who is the No. 8 seed in the Class AA field this year.
“I see them as more of a five or six-seed personally. I don’t see them as a No. 8 seed,” Sauvage said. “I told the boys that, and after they watched them on film, they agreed with me. It is a tougher draw than a normal No. 8 seed, but you have to play all the teams at some point, so you might as well jump in from the beginning.”
On paper the game appears to be a clash of styles. James Monroe wants to get up and down the court and play fast, while Cameron is more comfortable at a slower, more deliberate pace.
“In all of the games we have watched, sometimes they would press, but not very often. They like the half-court sets on both offense and defense,” Sauvage said. “We want to speed it up on both ends of the court. Our goal with them will be to speed them up a little faster than they are used to. Hopefully that can create some turnovers and quicker shots.”
The Dragons sport three players that have been the major scoring threats including Lance Hartly, Cole Burkett and Colson Wichterman.
“Hartly is listed as about 6-foot-4 and seems to be a really strong post (player), but he will step outside a little bit as well,” Sauvage said. They also have the two guards that are really quick. Burkett is a really solid player and he likes to drive it a little more than shoot from outside. Wichterman is a good shooter, but doesn’t seem to drive it as much.”
The question for the Dragons will be, can they slow down the Mavericks?
James Monroe (22-2) can score from all over the floor and are led by Eli Allen who nearly averages a triple-double scoring 21 points per game to go along with 9.1 assists and 7.6 rebounds.
Collin Fox averages 16 points per game and Josh Burks adds 13 points each night.
While the “Big 3” get the bulk of the scoring attention, the Mavericks have received strong contributions from Cooper Ridgeway (5.9 ppg), Juan Hopkins (5.9 ppg) and Owen Jackson (7.0 ppg) throughout the season.
The boys from Monroe County are sporting a 15-game winning streak heading into Tuesday’s clash with Cameron. The Mavericks own wins over Class A No. 3 seed Tucker County (63-54), No. 4 seed Clay Battelle (91-55) and No. 5 seed Webster County (71-59).
James Monroe also owns two regular season wins over Class AA No. 2 seed Bluefield and pushed Class AAA No. 1 Shady Spring to the limit in a 55-52 loss inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
While many teams succumb to the vast confines in Charles, James Monroe did not have that issue last year and Sauvage hopes that trend continues this year.
“Four (Allen, Burks, Fox and Ridgeway) out of our six players played there last year. Owen and Juan are the two that I am curious how they react there,” Sauvage said. “They like playing on those types of floors. We played at the (Beckley Convention Center) four times this year and at the Brushfork Armory. They seem to really like the bigger type atmospheres.”
The winner of James Monroe and Cameron will battle the winner of Clay-Battelle and Webster County Friday afternoon in the semifinal round at 1 p.m.
The Class A state championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 12:30 p.m.