Following an overtime grinder Friday night against Oak Hill for its first loss of the season, the question was, how would James Monroe respond Saturday afternoon against Mount Hope Christian in the Little General Battle for the Armory.
Battling the Warriors in the consolation game of the Pepsi Division, the Mavericks handed out a resounding response.
Running off 19 straight points across the second and third quarter, James Monroe galloped to an 74-38 win.
“This team, I really figured it would come out and play, and we did,” James Monroe first year head coach Kelly Mann said. “We subbed a lot early and had some weird rotations, but really our struggles were just offensive emotion. We have to learn to slow down a little bit and be a little more confident offensively. We have good energy and we want to rebound, but we have some things to clean up defensively.”
The Mavericks never trailed in the game and took the initial lead on an old school 3-point play from Brady Baker. When the first quarter horn sounded, James Monroe was up 19-9 and appeared in complete control.
A nice left-handed score in the lane by Cade Dillon opened the second quarter for the Mavs, but a three-minute drought allowed Mount Hope Christian to creep back in the game. James Monroe also gave up some easy buckets with some defensive lapses across that stretch that allowed the lead to be cut in half.
“We tried to go full-court a few times, but we had a couple of guys that didn’t communicate and get back in time. It is stuff we will work on, but it is a little frustrating,” Mann said. “You work on it and then you put it in live and it kind of falls apart. Most of the time in the half court we were OK, but we will get there.”
With just under 90 seconds to play, it was still a six-point game when James Monroe erupted for a 11-0 run to close the half.
Bryce Gardinier started the spurt with a hard drive for a bucket which turned into a 3-point play. Another score from Gardinier and two straight hoops from Jayden Miller preceded a lay-in from Wil Boggess to beat the buzzer for a 37-20 lead.
“I didn’t even know the rotation we had there at the end, but we had a bunch of guards out there. I told them we were going back with that five because I liked what they were doing,” Mann said. “Sometimes our bigs, who are not truly bigs, against these smaller guards, it puts them in a weird matchup position.”
James Monroe added eight more before the Warriors stopped the bleeding, but the Mavericks were far from done.
“I looked at our bench during the second quarter with a minute or so to go in the first half and I told our guys that I thought James Monroe was sleepwalking a little bit,” Mount Hope Christian head coach Quinton Runyon said. “They were playing down a little bit. Then we gave up that run and just didn’t put things together to start the third quarter. By the time we got settled, it was too far gone at that point.”
An elbow jumper from Gardinier rekindled the third quarter fire, sending the Mavericks on a 12-0 run for a 57-25 lead.
The telling statistic of the game was the rebounding margin where James Monroe held a 47-20 edge over the smaller Warriors, leading to numerous second-chance points.
“I’m not surprised we got out-rebounded. I am surprised by the amount,” Runyon said. “I think early in the game it was, it’s James Monroe, they played in three state tournaments and two championship games. They should respect them, but initially that was a lot for us to deal with. Rebounding will always hurt us. We try to play solid defense the best we can, but sometimes if we get lost chasing our guy, it gets us out of rebounding position.”
Gardinier led the Mavs with 15 points and Miller scored 12. Layton Dowdy added nine points, while Ryan Mann and Dillon had eight each. Bannon Goodman and Dillon also grabbed nine rebounds.
The win moves James Monroe to 5-1 on the young season, with only setback the overtime loss to AAAA Oak Hill.
“I guess it depends on the day, but I am pretty satisfied with where we are at,” Mann said. “We were left with a good core of guys that know the correct way to do things. Now we have some young guys that we have to teach that to. We got to play a ton of guys, which was nice, to see what they can go out and do. Ultimately that is our job, to find the rotations that will work.”
