Good fortune has never really shined on James Monroe inside the Greater Beckley Gymnasium.
Saturday night, the Mavericks once again left Raleigh County with a sour taste in their mouths.
With the game tied at 61-all, a free throw from freshman Keegan Davidson with six seconds on the clock proved to be the difference in a 62-61 upset win for the Crusaders on Senior Night.
“It means a lot to get this win. (James Monroe) is very well coached every year and they make great adjustments throughout the game,” Greater Beckley head coach Justin Arvon said. “It is always tough to beat them because they are so long and tough and physical. Their kids play with a lot of intensity and that is tough to beat. We were able to come out on top today. It is always a good matchup and I am excited to have the win.”
The game started at a break-neck pace with the No. 4 ranked Mavericks holding a narrow 19-18 lead after one quarter.
A big reason for the first quarter success for the Crusaders was the play of senior Landon Rose who drilled a pair of long balls early in the quarter.
“Landon is a heart, hustle and energy guy. He is the soul of our team. When he shows up like that, we are a different basketball team,” Arvon said. “He bring the intensity to the game and he can shoot the ball. He also got two or three offesnive rebounds in the first quarter.”
During the next eight minutes, however, the scoring dried up, but when the halftime horn sounded the home team had rallied to take a 26-24 lead.
“The second quarter I thought we stopped moving. A lot of our offense is read and react off of cuts and we just weren’t doing them,” James Monroe head coach Matt Sauvage said. “It kind of became a stalemate and a defensive battle in the second quarter. It’s going to happen, but it happened for too long a period of time.”
Arvon also lamented the low scoring output and a chance to take a larger lead into the locker room.
“I took some guys out in the interest of getting them some rest that I should not have done,” Arvon admitted. “When I did that we decided to slow it down a little bit more and we weren’t executing. I take the blame on that.”
Greater Beckley maintained control of the game in the third period largely on Davidson’s young shoulders.
Knocking down four buckets and scoring on all three of his free throw attempts, Davidson scored 11 points in the quarter to help give his team a 44-40 lead with eight minutes to play.
A good portion of the struggles for James Monroe through three quarters were tied to foul trouble for big man Brady Baker who had opened the game on fire scoring eight points in the first quarter.
“It was a huge because Brady was playing like he has been the last six or seven games. They called it differently tonight. That is not bad or good, but they just called it differently than what we have been used to lately,” Sauvage said. “We didn’t adjust to it as a team. That is something we have to do. That is on us.”
Arvon also believed with Baker playing limited minutes that his team was afforded the opportunity to play at a much faster pace.
“It was huge for us. It allowed for us to free up on the defensive end to get up and down the floor a little more,” Arvon said. “We didn’t have to have such a large lineup in. I thought Aaron (Hall) played well against him, but Brady is a heck of a player.”
The home team was red-hot to open the final period racing out to a 12-point lead, largely on its success from behind the arc.
“Kash Hendrix,” Arvon said when asked about the 3-point success in the fourth quarter. “He has been injured for a few games here with a badly sprained ankle. He is a great shooter that is not afraid to take them and make shots. When he gets rolling he can hit them and really give us a boost. He hit some big shots for us when we needed them.”
A pair of 3-pointers from Hendrix and one each from Kellen Heffernan and Averyk Woodson were part of the fourth quarter barrage.
“Part of that was we got in big foul trouble tonight and it was hard to get our guys where they needed to be,” Sauvage said about the made 3’s from Greater Beckley. “They were coming in and out so much it was hard to get into a rhythm, but that is part of basketball.”
James Monroe was down, but not out.
The Mavericks turned up the defensive aggression and stormed back to tie the game prior to Davidson’s free-throw.
“You can see that James Monroe’s kids are older, bigger and stronger than we are. That came in to play late in the game,” Arvon said. “We have to get in the weight room in the off-season and develop our players a little better physically. I did think we stayed mentally tough.”
As the clocked ticked under 10 seconds, Davidson attacked and was not knocked to the floor attempting to score on a jumper along the baseline.
“He is a big-time kid all around. He is going to be something really special in this area for the next four years. There is a lot to watch with him and he is a born leader,” Arvon said. “We knew he was going to make the first one. I wish he had made the second, but ultimately we didn’t care because it got the clock running, which was good for us.”
James Monroe had a look at the basket, but the shot did not find the mark.
“We set up a play whether it was a miss or a make because we didn’t want them to setup their defense out of a timeout,” Sauvage said. “We didn’t quite get what we wanted off of it, but it was a decent look.”
Davidson led all scorers with 21 points, while Rose had 10. Baker and Ryan Cole had 15 points each for the Mavs.
JM: 19 5 16 21 – 61
GBC: 18 8 18 19 – 62
James Monroe
Layton Dowdy 7, Cooper Ridgeway 14, Ryan Mann 6, Bannon Goodman 4, Ryan Cole 15, Brady Baker 15. Totals: 24 9-13 61
Greater Beckley
Keegan Davidson 21, Aaron Hall 4, Kellen Heffernan 7, Averyk Woodson 5, Kash Hendrix 6, Isaiah Kincaid 6, Hunter Laxton 1, Landon Rose 10, Eli Gunter 3. Totals: 24 6-12 62.
