New Richmond – Wyoming East continues to navigate the rough waters of Region 3 in hopes that the top seed lies at the end of the journey.
The latest wave came in the form of No. 4 James Monroe but the Warriors steadied it in time to keep the waters clear.
Trailing by 10 points with two minutes to play in the third quarter, East rallied to topple the Mavericks 58-53 Friday in New Richmond.
The win sees the Warriors improve to 4-0 in regional play while also playing their fourth game of the year against a team ranked in the top five of the coaches poll (Bluefield, James Monroe and Tug Valley twice).
This one, however, required more resiliency.
Shooting just 1-for-15 from outside the arc, the Warriors leaned on their defense and as a result held the Mavericks to just 2-for-12 shooting in the final quarter and 2 for-18 and six points over the final 10 minutes of the game.
“Coach (Rory) Chapman, we talk about where we are as a team right here nine or 10 games through the season and we talk about we’re really good defensively right now,” East head coach Kent McBride said. “I think we’re really locked in to what we’re okay giving up and what we’re trying to take away. When you go 1-for-15 from 3 and you can still win the game with a couple other stats going against you it’s because guys are committed to defending. I tell them all the time if you’re fortunate enough to make it out of this region to Charleston you have to be able to guard.”
For James Monroe, which shot 57 percent from the field until hitting the wall, the stakeout proved fatal with on elf those field goals coming in the waning seconds as East held a two-possession lead.
“I think sometimes you just start missing shots,” James Monroe has coach Kelly Mann said.”Just like them going 1-for-15 from 3, there’s a lot of things that play into that. If we make two or three more of those we probably come out of here with a win that you don’t get very often.”
While the Maverick offense went cold, defense largely powered their successful efforts Friday. Their willingness to pressure and trap East generated 12 turnovers, never allowing the hosts to settle in.
They tried early, taking a 4-0 lead on buckets from Keegan Davidson and Konnor Fox, extending their lead to 7-2. A baseline dunk from Kadyn Hines flipped the momentum to the Mavericks as a 3-pointer from Lane Taylor and consecutive layups for Ryan Mann and Jayden Miller comprised a 9-0 run for the visitors.
The teams tied twice more before James Monroe took a 15-13 advantage into the second frame. A Wyatt Mann 3 early in the quarter put the Mavs back up two possessions but that proved to be the largest advantage of the quarter with six ties and a lead change each preceding an intermission that saw James Monroe lead 35-31.
Out of the break the Mavs went on the attack.
Taylor nailed another triple and Bryce Gardinier followed with a jumper that led to a 40-31 advantage, laster slashed by layups from Talan Muscari and Fox. Both buckets were part of a 6-0 run that cut the deficit back to three but Mann, Hines and Bryer Surface combined for a 7-0 stretch and 47-37 advantage for the Movs, the largest of the game for either team.
In danger of watching the game slip away, the Warriors made a substitution, bringing in Braedy Johnston who provided a spark. His layup and assist to Fox, who scored 21 points to go with 20 rebounds, sparked an 8-0 run to close the quarter and 10-0 run to tie it.
“James Monroe makes it very difficult with the way they play for us to get in a rhythm,” McBride admitted. “I thought we just settled in and played really simple. We made a substitution – I thought Braedy Johnston came in and really sparked us. Really on the defensive end and offensively when they were pressing he made a lot of plays getting to the open area and made them pay on the press a couple times.”
Mann snapped the skid with another short jumper in the lane before Fox netted the game at 49. Mann again restored order, splitting a pair of free throws but with nearly three minuets to go Muscari took the lead for good on a driving layup.
East’s next seven points all came from the free throw line.
James Monroe nearly earned an opportunity to tie with under 15 seconds to play when Muscari missed the second of a pair of free throws but Braxton Morgan grabbed the offensive rebound, drawing a foul and netting both of his free throws to drop the curtain.
“We missed a couple shots, I thought they were good looks,” Mann said of the stretch that flipped the game. “I felt like we got the looks we were looking for all night. Sometimes we had a cripple runs where we made a couple, we were up 10 when we made a couple and they missed a couple but truly it was our defensive rotation in that timeframe.
We had a couple guys getting confused on rotations in our full-court and we’re 10 games in. It’s getting better but there’s still a lot of holes there were going to fill.We made the wrong choice a couple times and that got it into the middle and downhill and Muscari kept getting in the middle. He wasn’t finishing – we were getting really good defense but then (Fox) was getting all of those rebounds.”
Mann led the Mavericks with 12 points while Taylor netted 11.
Muscari joined Fox in double figures with 13 while Morgan scored 10.
James Monroe
Kadyn Hines 8, Lane Taylor 11, Jayden Miller 6, Bryer Surface 5, Bryce Gardinier 2, Wyatt Mann 2, Ryan Mann 12
Wyoming East
Keegan Davidson 6, Talan Muscari 13, Broc Johnson 6, Braxton Morgan 10, Konnor Fox 21, Braedy Johnston 4
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