Lindside – James Monroe head coach Shari Helvey insists feeding her team oranges at halftime has led to their massive third quarters throughout the year.
She’ll need to scout produce stands in Charleston.
The Mavericks outscored Independence 19-6 in the third quarter, rolling to a 58-29 victory Thursday night in a Class AA Region 3 co-final in Lindside.
The win sends James Monroe to next week’s Class AA state tournament at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center where it will be the No. 1 overall seed and open with No. 8 Lincoln on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.
Battling blow-for-blow with the Patriots through the first half, the Lady Mavs found their groove on both sides off the ball out of the intermission. They held Independence to just 4-of-17 shooting in the second half, forcing 12 turnovers. Coupled with a 62 percent shooting clip (16-for-26) in the second half, they blew the game open.
“It’s just halftime adjustments,” Helvey insisted. “You come in with a six point lead and I’ve got to do a better job of getting these kids to stop listening to the outside voices too. You hear stuff people are trying to say to them about winning a state championship. We’ve got to win tonight. It’s almost like they had faces that were down at halftime because we weren’t ahead by a set amount. Just trying to rally that mentality, I mean Independence is the No. 9 team in the state and understanding that respect is due for a team that’s had this record and has been able to win as many games as they have so you knew it was going to be a battle.
“I think we settled down a little bit offensively and found what we were talking about. The short corner was open all night and being able to run the zone offense and get that look finally helped out a lot too. Defensively they locked in a little bit harder. I don’t know if that full court pressure helped out too. We were able to get six deep and throw a lot of kids out there and we’re getting up and down the court all night.”
The key for James Monroe was neutralizing Indy standouts Harmony Mills and Lacey Goodson. Mills scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half while Goodson was limited to six points on 2-of-12 shooting. Much of that had to do with James Monroe’s defensive game plan which saw point guard Kendall Long guarding Goodson the length of the court, forcing her to work for every dribble.
“The press really hurt us in the third,” Indy head coach Mark Cuthbert said. “They jumped into what they’d done all year. We were hoping to come out and stay close but when you’re playing a good team like that it’s hard.”
“That’s Kendall,” Helvey said. “In the first half when we brought Chylin (Eggleston) off the bench I said, ‘Do you want a break?’ because it’s no secret I scout and I scout hard and I wanted Kendall to do that. I wanted her to be full-court pressure for 32 minutes and she looked at me and said, ‘No. I’m fine.’ Again, I can’t teach that inner-motor. I gave her a task and she excelled very well at it and that’s Kendall for you.”
James Monroe threatened to pull away early when freshman Lydia Dunlap scored four straight and Peighton Griffith later added a 3 to make it a 16-8 affair but trailing 18-10 in the second quarter, Indy sparked a charge. Mills hit on a layup before Peyton Raban later capped a three-point play.
Mills again was money with another layup to pull the visitors within a score at 19-17. Indy managed a steal on the following possession but couldn’t capitalize on the ensuing fast break attempt, yielding the last four points of the half to Dunlap. It capped a half where the hosts shot just 32 percent (9-of-28) rom the field.
Goodson kept Indy’s hope alive briefly with the first field goal of the second half only to see James Monroe respond with a 15-0 run that doubled up the score at 38-19.
Dunlap contributed six points during the stretch while Monaka Moore added four with the focal point becoming the post. Peighton Griffith, who finished with 14 points, capped the run.
“That’s what the gameplan was, Cuthbert said. “We wanted to stop Mya (Dunlap) from the outside and Lydia down low and (Griffith) stepped up and she made shots. We got our rotations messed up chasing and the shots fell tonight.”
The victory clinches James Monroe’s third consecutive state tournament berth after suffering a drought from 2004-2022. It’s the first time the program will go into Charleston as the top seed as the seeding system did not exist when the teams from 2001-03 played in the state title game.
They’ll be tasked with avoiding an upset-minded Lincoln team.
“Big kids, I mean they’re a big team,” Helvey said. “They have two or three of the guards that are going to be Mya’s size. And when you see that you don’t see it very often but size is a big deal in all of this. When you have good size and you matchup with us well it presents a problem. I’ve seen primarily only zone so that’s half of the reason why we’ve been hitting the zone offense spot hard the last couple of weeks. Big body underneath is always a difficult matchup for us underneath but I do feel like defensively we do put a lot of pressure on them maybe they haven’t seen.”
Harmony Mills closed out her career as Independence’s all-time leading scorer, pacing the Patriots with 14 in her final contest.
Lydia Dunlap netted 16 to lead the Mavs while Griffith netted 14.
Independence
Harmony Mills 14, Peyton Raban 7, Lacey Goodson 6, Jessica Vandall 2
James Monroe
Mya Dunlap 6, Kendall Long 3, Peighton Griffith 14, Monaka Moore 6, Lydia Dunlap 16, Rileigh Jackson 2, Trinity Hill 4, Chylin Eggleston 2, Grayson Johnson 5
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