Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Charleston – James Monroe’s only other three trips to the state tournament ended on Saturday.
The Mavericks couldn’t slay the dragon to get that far on their fourth try.
Cameron all-stater and Youngstown St. signee Ashlynn Van Tassell scored 28 points and grabbed 30 rebounds as the two-time defending state champions earned their fourth consecutive trip to a title game with a 75-43 victory over No. 5 James Monroe Friday morning in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Cameron will attempt to become the first Class A team to win three state championships in a row since Huntington St. Joe won seven from 2009-2015. Doing so would make it the first public school to accomplish that feat Class A.
The Dragons will face the winner of Gilmer County-Tucker County on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Mavericks pushed the Dragons for a half, trailing by just eight points at the intermission. But refocused, Cameron rolled in the second half. It started with a 7-0 run keyed by guards Kenzi Clutter, Emilee Dobbs and Maci Neely. Clutter kicked things off before Neely split a pair of free throws. Dobbs and Clutter proceeded to score on consecutive possessions to push the Cameron lead to 36-21.
Maggie Boroski temporarily quelled the run before Van Tassell used her 6-foot-2 frame to dominate and score seven in a row for her team.
Her rebounding prowess helped Cameron out-rebound James Monroe 38-11 in the second half after tying at 24 in the first half.
“We got into foul trouble a little early,” James Monroe had coach Angie Mann said. “Anybody’s gonna have a hard time with Van Tassell, trying to keep her covered and keep the others covered as well. Seems like we couldn’t get our offense rolling the way that we wanted to. With more of the run and gun. It seems like that’s where we kind of came up short having to try to work around the perimeter.”
The inability to generate easier shot attempts limited what the Mavericks could do. They managed just seven fast break points and six off of turnovers. Combined with Van Tassell’s presence at the rim, James Monroe failed to find a rhythm despite an early lead.
Mya Dunlap contributed to the early advantage for the Mavericks, splitting a pair of free throws to tie the game at 2-2 and converting on a layup to give them the advantage.
Boroski followed with a layup before the Dragons tied the game again at six. Mary Beth Meadows netted two of her team-high 22 points to reestablish an advantage.
The steam eventually ran out as the Dragon closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 13-10 advantage into the break. They never relinquished it the rest of the way, leading by as many as 10 points through the second quarter.
“We talked about winning the rebound battle because at halftime we had the same amount as James Monroe,” Cameron head coach Holly Pettit said. “And so we talked about slowing the pace and making good passes and taking good shots. And I think that we were just a lot more patient coming out in that third quarter. I think we crushed the boards well on defense and forced turnovers. And I think that sometimes they’re more of a third quarter team than they are the first half. But we have to make sure that we play all four tomorrow.”
Senior Mary Beth Meadows did her part in her final high school game, scoring 13 of her team-high 22 points in the final half after battling foul trouble but Cameron had an answer for nearly every bucket. She was the only Maverick to shoot over 50 percent (8 of 14) on the afternoon despite missing 11 minutes in foul trouble.
“I’ve said it about Mary Beth all year long,” Mann said. “I gotta have her in there. And when she’s not in there, they could see it on their faces. So that was tough, for sure.”
James Monroe finishes 17-9 and graduates Meadows and Abigail Mathis but returns leading scorer Maggie Boroski as well as standouts Ava and Mya Dunlap.
“We’re looking forward to next year,” Mann said. “We’re going up to double-A and we’ve already been planning on a schedule with some of these double-A teams and triple-A teams. I just said to them in the locker room, you know, this is us coming up for the first time in 20 years and we’re planning it as a program that’s established themselves so we got to work on making it to round two.”
