Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Lindside – Twenty-seven years ago the 1995-96 James Monroe basketball team – the first one in school history to earn a state tournament berth – lost to eventual Class AA state champion Bluefield in the state semifinals.
Honored before the start of Friday’s game, the members from that team left with smiles on their faces as they watched their alma mater face that same Beaver program with a different result.
Class A No. 1 James Monroe limited Class AA No. 2 Bluefield to just one point in the second quarter, engineering a nine-point comeback and never relinquishing the lead in a 68-56 victory in Lindside.
Trailing 18-9 against a Beaver squad that shot 62 percent from the field after the opening quarter, James Monroe seized control of the game by outscoring Bluefield 19-1 in the second quarter. The lone point for the Beavers came with 13.7 second left in the half when Sencere Fields split a pair at the charity stripe.
“After the first quarter the coaches weren’t very happy with the defensive side,” James Monroe coach Matt Sauvage said. “When I called a timeout, we didn’t say whole lot about defense because the players weren’t happy with that side. We had a couple things we were supposed to be doing and they weren’t. We were playing a little bit differently than we normally do just because R.J. (Hairston) in the paint is a man so we were doing a few different things that they weren’t doing. We looked at them and said ‘Are you all ready to get it on the defensive side?’ Now I didn’t expect one point by any means, but that’s where it starts for us and it always has.”
On the heels of an 11-point win against Class AA No. 3 Chapmanville, the Beavers came in hoping to avenge a 55-50 loss to the Mavericks in January and looked well on their way to doing so early.
All five starters scored in an opening frame that saw Bluefield execute its half court offense and get open looks while controlling the pace of the game. Leading 18-9 heading into the second, the game changed quickly. All-state captain and Evans Award candidate Eli Allen nailed a 3 for his first points of the game and the second quarter. Though he impacted the game as more than a scorer. He dished four of his nine assists in the second frame, finding Owen Jackson and Josh Burks for treys after his own to knot the game at 18.
Burks added a 3-point play on a steal and assist from Allen to give the Mavericks the lead for good. Meanwhile the Beavers generated looks at the rim, continuously coming up empty. They finished the quarter shooting 0 of 10 from the field, compounding their troubles with six turnovers.
“We played a fantastic first quarter and the second quarter we just shut down,” Bluefield coach Buster Large said. “We missed so many shots and gave them so many open shots. You cannot do the against a good ball club like James Monroe.”
When the halftime horn sounded the hosts held a 28-19 advantage, one they pushed to 13 throughout the third quarter but the offenses on both sides showed up in a frame won 25-22 by the Mavericks.
The 22 points in the third, more than the Beavers scored in the entire first half, jolted Bluefield which cut the deficit down to six at 57-51 on a pair of Caleb Fuller 3s with just under six minutes to play. An 11-2 run for the hosts solved that problem with Allen orchestrating the show and accounting for five of those points during the knockout spurt.
“At halftime we talked about it and knew they’d come out swinging,” Sauvage said. “It might be at the very beginning of the quarter or the end and it ended up being they made a run in the fourth. Eli, you can’t say enough about him. A lot of the stuff is not in the stat sheets. I’ll be honest, as a coach he called a couple of plays tonight that worked out beautiful for us and it was his call. We’ve given him that liberty because he’s earned it. He does a lot of stuff that doesn’t necessarily show up in the stat columns but as a coach, it’s nice!”
For the Beavers, who have played a challenging slate featuring teams ranked in the Top 5 of all four classes, it was another frustrating outcome after a quality win on Tuesday.
“What a tremendous crowd here tonight and they got some really good basketball,” Large said. “But like I said, we’re heading in the right direction but tonight we sort of took a step back. We’ve got to get it turned around tomorrow against Graham but I think we’ll be okay.”
Allen was one of four Mavericks to score in double figures with 17 points, joined by Collin Fox (15), Owen Jackson (12) and Josh Burks (16).
Will Looney led Bluefield with 14 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
B: 18 1 22 15 – 56
JM: 9 19 25 15 – 68
Bluefield
Kam’Ron Gore 10, Sencere Fields 4, Will Looney 14, Caleb Fuller 13, Brayden Fong 3, RJ Hairston 12
James Monroe
Josh Burks 16, Cooper Ridgeway 4, Eli Allen 17, Collin Fox 15, Juan Hopkins 4, Owen Jackson 12
3-point goals – B: 4 (Fields, Fuller 2, Fong 1); JM: 9 (Burks 3, Allen 1, Fox 3, Jackson 2)
