Gallery by Ashley HonakerĀ
Charmco – James Monroe girls basketball head coach Angela Mann noted that she and her staff had been waiting for Mya Dunlap to break out of her shell.
Friday night against regional rival Greenbrier West, the young freshman cracked it wide open.
Hampered by fouls in the first half, Dunlap exploded for 15 second-half points, serving as the catalyst for a 61-48 win over the Cavaliers.
“It was a really close game (at halftime), so we knew we had to step it up,” Dunlap said. “With me going in with three fouls and Maggie (Boroski) having three fouls, we just knew we had to step it up. I had to play with the mindset of having zero fouls.”
Trailing by two points at the break, James Monroe regained the lead to open the second half with a quick 6-0 run.
Boroski scored off an offensive rebound from Mya Dunlap before Boroski found Ava Dunlap for a score aided by a turnover. A steal and score from Mary Beth Meadows capped the spurt for a 28-24 lead.
“It was very big for them,” Greenbrier West head coach Mark Agee said about the quick second half start. “It was the turning point of the game. We fought back, but that was a big turnaround.”
Seven straight points from Mya Dunlap helped James Monroe maintain its advantage, but on the other side, Preslee Treadway was answering for the Cavaliers.
Two buckets from the junior all-stater evened the game prior to Dunlap scoring her ninth point of the quarter for a 37-35 lead.
Undaunted by the score, Treadway tied the game again with a stickback and gave West its only lead of the second half at 39-38 with a bucket with 48 seconds left in the third period.
“Preslee is a leader on the court and she always will be, but hats off to all my girls, even the ones that came in off the bench,” Agee said. “They played their hearts out and gave us quality minutes.”
A floater from Meadows and two free throws from Mya Dunlap put the Mavericks up 42-39 with eight minutes to play.
Dunlap was called for her third foul with just over a minute to play in the opening quarter and was relegated to the bench for the remainder of the opening half.
“I was wishing I was on the floor,” Dunlap said about her extended time on the bench. “I don’t like sitting on the bench at all. I have been playing for quite a while and I try to be the best I can be when I am out there.”
Oddly enough, the time on the bench turned out to be an unusual blessing according to Mann.
“Mya has that potential and we have been trying to find all year where her best spot is. You can put her at the point or underneath. You can put her anywhere,” Mann explained. “If you put her on the bench and she has to sit there, she gets hungry for it. She controlled the second half for us. She is so good defensively. That is why I got so upset when she got those fouls. It was really hard to play with out her.”
Abigail Thomas opened the final quarter with a score for the Cavaliers only to see Boroski push the lead out to five points with back-to-back buckets.
A hoop from Treadway pulled West within three points, but then the game took an unfortunate turn when Thomas went down with an injury on a rebound attempt with 4:48 to play and had to be helped from the floor.
A double-digit rebounder for the Cavaliers, Thomas had been a beast all night on the offensive glass.
“She was rebounding the ball like crazy. She is one of the players with the most heart on our team. Abigail is one of the best defensive players that we have and you won’t find hardly anyone that works harder than her,” Agee said. “She has really come on the last couple of years. She has been a ball-handler and plays inside for us. She never argues about anything. You tell her to do it and that is what she does.”
In the wake of the injury to Thomas, James Monroe ran off nine straight to put the game out of reach.
Ava Dunlap scored off an assist from her sister Mya who scored the next four points. A steal and a layup from Meadows made it a 55-43 game with 2:30 to play in the contest.
“We got in some foul trouble early on, but we pushed through. We have these close games that we have been playing and we have been learning what we need to do to come out with a win. They are learning to play with each other,” Mann said.
Mya Dunlap led the Mavericks with 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Meadows scored 17 and Ava Dunlap had 11, including seven in the first half to help keep James Monroe in the game.
“We have a team that has the potential that when somebody else might be struggling, they can pick up the slack,” Mann said. “That is what we have to have and they are realizing that now. They aren’t freaking out when somebody is not having a good game.”
Treadway led all scorers with 23 points on the night. Maddie Fields and Thomas each scored seven.
“We turned the ball over a few times (in the fourth quarter), but it was because we got out of what we were doing in the first half,” Agee said. “I call it a great game. You had two of the top teams in the state from our area that left it all out there on the floor. They worked hard. They did what we practiced on and they did it perfect. I felt like we set the pace the first half of the game and got a little tired in the second half of the game. Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with all the girls performance.”
JM: 10 12 20 19 – 61
GW: 9 15 15 9 – 48
James Monroe
Mary Beth Meadows 17, Ava Dunlap 11, Maggie Boroski 7, Mya Dunlap 20, Abby Mathis 3, Jordan Roberts 3.
Greenbrier West
Preslee Treadway 23, Maddie Fields 7, Abigail Thomas 7, Brilee Redden 6, Sam Holliday 2, Lacey Walker 3.