Last March inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, James Monroe was celebrating its second consecutive Class A boys state championship title.
The Mavericks were guided by the senior trio of Eli Allen, Josh Burks and Collin Fox who all three were later named first-team all-staters.
Allen was also named the winner of the Evans Award as the state’s top basketball player over all classes by the West Virginia Sports Writer’s Association.
Times were great in Monroe County.
Then graduation happened taking the three stars with it along with some key senior contributors like Juan Hopkins (6 points, four rebounds) and Owen Jackson (seven points, four rebounds).
Many outside of Monroe County, and maybe several inside those borders, felt the historic run was over for the Mavericks.
To quote legendary broadcaster Lee Corso, “not so fast, my friend.”
Tuesday night, the Mavericks (20-4) secured its third state tournament berth in as many years with a convincing win over regional rival Greenbrier West.
“I won’t say people wrote us off, but a lot of people didn’t see this. I will be honest, I didn’t know what we saw,” James Monroe head coach Matt Sauvage said. “I won’t say we didn’t see it happening, but we weren’t sure what we saw at the beginning.”
Senior Cooper Ridgeway was the only returning starter back this year and talked about the journey back to Charleston.
“It has been rough. A lot of people wrote us off and we didn’t know where we were going to be,” Ridgeway said. “We just came together as a team and we knew what the goal was. We took it one day at a time, now we are right where we want to be.”
The season started with two wins and two losses before a victory over Class AAAA Princeton and Class A powerhouse Webster County two games later jump-started an 11-game win streak.
Since the loss to AA Wyoming East on Dec. 28, the Mavericks have only been on the wrong end of the scoreboard twice in the last 20 games.
While the boys from Monroe County have struggled at times scoring the basketball, they have turned to defense as their main weapon of choice.
Over the last 21 games, James Monroe has only allowed three teams to score over 51 points. In the three postseason games, the Mavs have held all three opponents under 40 points.
“I can’t say enough about our defense. They don’t care who you are they are going to go after you,” Sauvage said after the regional win.
In the regional triumph over West, James Monroe held the Cavaliers to 16 second quarter points, while scoring 42 points over the same span.
Ridgeway, who is also an all-state football player, leads the team in steals and also spearheaded the second half run against Greenbrier West.
“Coach told us to step it up on defense and wrote a bunch of stuff up on the board,” Ridgeway said. “He told us doing that would transition into offense and it did. I got a couple of steals and got out in front of everybody.”
Balance has been the key for James Monroe on the offensive side, led by Ryan Cole (16.3), along with Ridgeway and Brady Baker scoring 10 points a night and Layton Dowdy at nine points per game.
After seeing limited minutes as a sophomore, the emergence of Baker this year has been a key factor to the Mavs’ success. An all-state lineman on the football team, Baker has great footwork and all of the tools needed to create havoc in the post.
“Brady has been a big key. We have been able to create an inside-out game with him that has opened up our offense,” Sauvage said. “But not only that, on the defensive end, we don’t have to double as much in the post which helps out our perimeter defense.”
Giving his teammates the comfort to defend the perimeter will be a huge factor in the quarterfinal match-up Wednesday night at 9 p.m. against Webster County.
The Highlanders sport three double digit scorers in Raydan Triplett (19.9), Riley Clevenger (16.3) and Logan Leichliter (14.1). Webster is not scared to shoot the 3-ball either and can do it with a high rate of efficiency.
James Monroe won the only other meeting this year, 59-51 on Jan. 4 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center in the New River CTC Tournament.
“Webster has good athletes and is well-coached. They have a good trio of guards and also a good big,” Sauvage said. “Running them off the 3-point line, but also controlling their drive, will be a key. The last time we played it was very close game. I expect nothing but the same this time.”
Although the Mavericks will have a tough road to the third straight title, if they do hoist the coveted trophy it will be the first Class A public school to do so since Mullens won three from 1982-1984.
Wheeling Central won four straight from 2002-2005.
“I don’t think this team is feeling pressure,” Sauvage said. “With Cooper being the only one coming back that was a starter, we kinda feel like this team is just trying to create their own history. “We have preached that from the beginning and I truly feel like that’s what they are doing.”
While the outcomes are still to be decided, Sauvage is happy with the progression of his team heading into the state tournament.
“As the season went along, we felt like they had a chance to make the state tournament. As each week went by, we felt like they had even more of a chance,” Sauvage said. “About the past two or three weeks I feel like we have been playing the best basketball of the season. That is what you want to do. Most of them are new when it comes to getting out on that court. It is key we have some momentum, but Charleston is a whole different atmosphere.”
