You could forgive James Monroe head coach Kelly Mann for overlooking Oak Hill’s Thomas Jones.
He had just two points at the intermission, and had played sparingly off the bench.
He’ll be on future scouting reports.
Jones netted 17 of his game-high 19 points in the second half and overtime, helping the Red Devils to a 70-64 overtime victory Friday evening in the Little General Battle for the Armory at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
“That’s why we leave him on the court in those situations because he’s a guy we can trust,” Oak Hill head coach Andy Kees said. “He’s a guy that doesn’t usually get sped up. He plays at his tempo, his pace and he knows how to execute our offense. He’s a very trustworthy guy. 
I know he’s always gonna make the right play and he doesn’t force the issue, and so he takes what the defense gives him. That’s why we see so much efficiently from the field because he doesn’t force it and he’s a really good shooter, but he has the ability to finish at the rim, too, because he’s a bigger kid. He’s highly skilled and that’s why you see him on the court during the those heavy moments during the game. He did a really good job tonight, but we’re not surprised, because that’s kind of what he shows us all the time.”
In the first half it was Levi Kiszka torching the Mavericks, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the second quarter alone, but the assault from the Red Devils came by committee. Antoine Hicks (13 points) and David Nelson (11 points) joined Jones and Kiszka in double figures.
“(Jones) absolutely snuck up on us,” Mann admitted. “Honestly, that’s one of those things that we lost on the scoreboard, but those are very fixable things. He was scoring on us taking chances, and he’s a crafty kind. He kind of slow plays you and the way he plays can mess with high school kids sometimes. He’s kind of crafty. We fell for some of those crafty moves instead of just being rock solid and we’ll figure that out. That can be eliminated. If he doesn’t make all seen of his shots, we win that game solidly, so it’s just learning pains and some of those young guys are going to learn from this.”
Mann’s squad fought from wire to wire, leading 4-0 early via buckets from Ryan Mann and Layton Dowdy. Oak Hill rallied with a 10-1 run keyed by Armonyi Hicks and Brent Conley but nerve shook the Mavericks who saw their largest deficit of the first half at 31-25, cutting the deficit to 37-33 at the intermission.
Buoyed by a 5 of 10 showing from 3-point range in the first half, the Mavericks never relented from downtown in their attempts, though they didn’t fall at the same rate they did in the first half. The visitors on the scoreboard shot 3 of 15 from beyond the arc in the second half, seeing 25 of their 51 shot attempts come from long range.
“It depends on the flow of the game and what’s happening,” Mann said. “I really wasn’t unhappy with our offensive mentality tonight, maybe a couple of threes that were a little quick. Some of those were added up at the very end when we were throwing up a couple of 3s, but I mean I think it’s really the challenge of what we have as a team. We were 3 for 15, but those are good shots.”
Neither team gave an inch in the second half with the largest lead belonging to Oak Hill at the start of the intermission. And despite the sinking 3-point percentage in the second half, the Mavs found one when they needed it.
Trailing 54-51 with 14 seconds left, Mann burned a timeout to set up a play but when it broke down, Bryce Gardinier found himself alone in the corner for the tying-3 to send the game to overtime.
But Jones iced the game with a three-point play and a layup that kept the Mavericks at arms length the rest of the way.
“That’s who we want our program to be,” Kees said. “
That’s what we’re about. We know obstacles are coming. I’ve been telling these guys for the last couple months that obstacles are coming and I guarantee the only difference in the outcome is how you approach it and your viewpoint and your mindset. We had a defensive breakdown on the 3. 
The kids knew we had a defensive breakdown. It wasn’t what we talked about in the huddle, but you gotta move on to the next play. We preached mental toughness and that was something that I think our kids learned coming into this season. We talk about it every single day of practice, and I put them in situations where I know, hey, you may fail now, but we’re gonna need you again at some point in time. 
And I was just proud, but the response, it was just necessary. They wanted to win and they’ve wanted to win for the last couple of weeks now. We’ve had some tough games and I’m just really proud of the response.”
Ryan Mann led the Mavericks with 21 points and 14 rebounds in the loss. Gardinier joined him in double figures with 15 points.
Oak Hill advances to the Pepsi Division Championship where it will face Princeton on Saturday at 4 p.m. James Monroe will face Mount Hope Christian at 2 p.m.
