Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Charleston – The 21-year wait was worth it.
No. 5 James Monroe treated its fans to a thriller Wednesday night, beating No. 4 Huntington St. Joe 58-57 in a Class A state quarterfinal game in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win was James Monroe’s first in the state tournament since the 2003 Class AA semifinal round.
In a chaotic game that featured a bit of everything, the Mavericks led by 15 early, trailed by as many as five points in the fourth quarter and held off another St. Joe comeback bid while bogged in foul trouble.
In all the ladies from Monroe County live to see semifinal Friday where they’ll face two-time defending state champion Cameron at 11:15 a.m. back in the Coliseum.
One of the best matchups of the tournament wasn’t on track to be so early. The Lady Mavs were ready to blow the doors off the Irish, jumping out to a 20-5 lead but made just six field goals over the following 17 minutes requiring a team effort to close the game out.
“I always tell the girls as soon as we hit that first layup, it’s like everybody takes a breath and we’re good to go,” James Monroe head coach Angie Mann said. “And that’s what happened tonight. We hit that first layup and were ready to go. They have that much confidence in each other. It’s just like a whole weight’s been lifted off their shoulders. So that helped us out right there off the bat. I mean, I don’t think that atmosphere is really bothered them too much. Once we hit that first one, we’re good to go.”
James Monroe’s initial plan was to slow the Irish down. The Mavs threw that out the window as they picked apart St. Joe’s press, hitting on wide-open shots.
Mary Beth Meadows was the engineer, assisting on layups to Mya Dunlap and Maggie Boroski in the first minutes to settle the Mavs in early. The run continued with Boroski nailing another layup and Ava Dunlap canning a short jumper to push the lead to 8-0.
Lacee Smith drew blood with a 3 for the Irish but the Mavs were quick to respond with Abby Mathis netting a layup to push the advantage back to seven. Ava Dunlap continued the assault with a a triple to extend the lead to 10 before St. Joe converted on its second field goal.
But a 7-0 run featuring buckets from Mathis and both Dunlap sisters pushed the advantage to 15 at 20-5.
From there the Irish found their bearings hitting a 3 to close the quarter and adding seven field goals in the second frame. Meanwhile James Monroe started running out of steam, coinciding with Mya Dunlap’s exit after picking up her third foul with four minutes to play in the half.
That allowed the Irish to cut the deficit to six points at the break.
The momentum carried for them out of the locker room as a 10-4 run knotted the game at 35 for nearly two minutes. The charge was mostly led by Lacee Smith who nailed three of her five 3-pointers in the quarter. Her third one gave St. Joe a 39-35 advantage with 1:51 left in the frame.
“We were not disrupting and denying early,” St. Joe head coach Jessica Huff said. “So you had a lot of key players getting wide open looks. There was some off rotations on the backside to get junk buckets. This was a very physical game. And so we pride ourselves and nobody out-grits us. It can be ugly, can be two to one as long as I have two, you know? And so at halftime, we said you got to dig deep, and we’ve got to get up and turn up on everything we do.
“The defense has got to be better – the intensity, the communication and we shot the ball better. We shot the ball very poorly in the first quarter. So I think the adjustment worked. We did some zone, we did some man, we did some junk. We just had to hit them, you know? And I know the free throw line hurts tonight. That hurt us as well. So those are the adjustments we did.”
While the Irish were able to attack James Monroe and get Mya Dunlap, Maggie Boroski and Mary Beth Meadows all in foul trouble with four each, they failed to capitalize. They finished 9 of 21 from the charity stripe, missing eight attempts in the second half alone.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we shot better from 3 than we did at the free throw line a lot of the year,” Huff admitted. “That doesn’t make sense. I don’t know, I’ve been coaching awhile and it makes no sense to me. So clearly, we need to shoot free throws in the offseason. But that’s tough. That’s tough to leave those out there.”
With 10 minutes to play and Boroski, the team’s leading scorer, saddled with four fouls, Mann elected to keep her star in the game. The gamble paid off as Boroski scored five of James Monroe’s 20 fourth quarter points.
The first two cut a three-point deficit to one at 45-44 and the final three gave the Mavericks a two-possession lead at 49-45 with 3:15 to play.
“I mean we had to put it all out there,” Mann said. “We took them out when we needed to but there comes a point when you just have to play and that’s what we had to do. We had to keep our best out there.”
“I think I just kept playing my part on offense and knew that I had to make the sacrifice if they got to the basket to just let them score but knowing that our team can make it up on offense,” Boroski said.
James Monroe padded its lead after Meadows and Mya Dunlap converted on a pair of free throws each with under two minutes to play. Boroski followed with a deep pass threaded to Ava Dunlap for a layup that pushed the advantage to 55-49 with 53 seconds to play.
From there the Mavericks went cold, missing three of four from the charity stripe, allowing the Irish to make it a one-point game. Forced to foul, Meadows, who missed two of those previous three attempts, made St. Joe pay by converting on a pair from the line to make it a 58-55 game with nine seconds left.
“Earlier in the day we were shooting foul shots and we had our girls behind the basket screaming and yelling and jumping acting crazy,” Meadows said. “So I wasn’t really that stressed with the loud noises. I was just going in there like I’ve been in the gym every day. Some fell short so I just went up there knowing I was gonna make it and luckily they went in.”
Needing a 3 to tie, St. Joe settled for a floater with four seconds to play and made it for the final point but without a timeout the Mavericks let the clock run. It left Huff frustrated with the officials at the end of the game.
“There’s some very specific rules with under a minute and I’m gonna leave it at that,” Huff said. “So yes, (Smith) was standing in the bullseye corner. This was my shooter at the end of the game. Deep corner for the cake. We go for the win, we never go for the tie. Right? So she’s back in the game. There was 4.1 seconds, shot went up. Niko made the bucket, but the play was two feet in the paint, take the bucket and go for the kick. This was the kick for the 3. High school rules and collegiate are a little bit different.”
Mya Dunlap, a freshman, led James Monroe and all scorers with 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting in 24 minutes of action. Sister Ava Dunlap added 11 while this and Boroski netted 11 each.
Smith led St. Joe with 17 in the loss.
