Charleston – Madonna head coach George Vargo summed up James Monroe pretty well.
“Damn they’re good. They’re good,” the veteran head coach said.
Based on Tuesday’s result he was accurate in his assessment.
James Monroe all-stater Eli Allen scored 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists as the top-seeded Mavericks throttled the Blue Dons 83-46 in the Class A quarterfinal at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
If there were any doubts about James Monroe – riding a 26-year state tournament drought prior to the game – they were erased immediately.
With the lower depths of the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center clad with purple shirts, the Mavericks put on a show from the jump.
They held Madonna without a field goal in the first quarter, using a rebounding advantage to help establish a 14-1 lead after a quarter.
Leading the charge was Cameron Thomas, who secured eight offensive rebounds with seven of them coming on the offensive glass. That was with Madonna sporting it’s own 6-foot-5 center in Evan Bone.
“I just knew I was a little bit quicker than him and made him tired,” Thomas said. “If I kept going at him I knew he’d wear down and I’d be able to get position the rest of the game.”
Six offensive rebounds in the opening six minutes of the game helped the Mavericks build an 8-0 lead but it was the effort of the role players around all-staters Allen and Sauvage that powered the charge.
Collin Fox drew first blood with a pair of free throws before Allen followed an offensive rebound with putback. Thomas chipped in a pair of layups before a free throw from Madonna’s Luca Muzzi put the Blue Dons on the board.
With so much attention directed towards Allen and Sauvage, Fox and Thomas continued to rake, scoring four of final six points of the quarter.
In the second quarter the Mavericks’ fifth starter, Josh Burks sported the hot hand. Allen routinely found Burks in the corner as he canned three 3-pointers in a quarter where the Mavs held a 22-9 advantage.
“The first five we got there, it’s nice to see Cam and Collin step up and Josh raining a couple of those 3s in,” James Monroe coach Matt Sauvage said. “That right there does wonders for a team when it’s not just two players, every player is coming in and doing their job. A couple of the roles changed tonight in different aspects. That was nice to see each one of them step up.”
Leading 25-8 at the 4:41 mark, the Mavericks outscored Madonna 11-2 to close the half, heading into the locker room up 36-10.
They were never threatened afterwards, despite Madonna finding a rhythm from the field. The Blue Dons shot over 40 percent from the floor in each of the final two quarters after an 0 of 11 showing in the opening frame.
The bad news was the Mavericks countered shooting 50 percent (7 of 14) in the third and 73 percent (11 of 15) in the fourth.
“Well me personally I’ve played a lot of AAU basketball and you’ve seen those courts,” Allen said. “There’s no walls and you’ve got eight courts in the facility so I’m kind of used to it.”
Shad Sauvage, who finished 4 of 10 from downtown agreed.
“Every goal is 10 feet tall so that’s how I look at it,” he said.
The Mavericks maintained their rebounding advantage throughout the night, winning the battle on the boards 42-29. It was a point of emphasis for Vargo.
“I seen that we were in trouble,” Vargo said. “We were in trouble. They controlled the boards and they did it through the first quarter and bad things happened.”
James Monroe advances to Class A semifinal game where it will play the winner of Tuesday’s Cameron-St. Joe matchup on Thursday at 7:15
Matt Sauvage, who was on the 1992 Peterstown team that was favored to win a state championship but fell in the semifinal round, has used that team as an example of the dangers of looking ahead. But he’s using a season-long message to get the point across instead.
“I bring up the Peterstown team,” Sauvage said. “We should’ve won it but we didn’t. We brought up a few other instances of some other teams that were favored and didn’t win it. But when it comes down to it I’ve told these boys all season long that whatever happens, to enjoy the journey. Because if someone walks up to you and says ‘Here’s a state tournament appearance’ it doesn’t mean anything. We’ve really tried to get this eboys to focus on enjoying the journey and not the destination. Win or lose the next game or the next – obviously our goal is to win a state championship – but I wasn’t these boys to enjoy the journey.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94