Beckley – To date James Monroe’s schedule, while difficult with games against higher class opponents such as Beckley, Shady Spring and Princeton, hadn’t featured a regional opponent.
With a chance to apply what they had learned over the first month of the season, the Mavericks passed their first test rallying from a 10-point second half deficit to topple Westside 70-62 in the New River CTC Invitational Tuesday evening at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
In his first game back after battling an illness for most of the season, sharpshooter Bryce Gardinier made the difference for the Mavericks, nailing 5 of 9 3-point attempts including the go-ahead 3 with just under six minutes to play that gave his team the lead for good.
“It was really shocking what he did tonight to be honest with you,” James Monroe head coach Kelly Mann sad. “He’s been out for awhile and we talked about on the way over how many minutes (would he play)? We let him determine the with how he’s feeling and thank goodness he was there because it really changed who we are and the whole mentality. He played a heck of a game to be where he’s at.”
Gardinier’s performance was symbolic of his team’s as a whole with standouts Kadyn Hines and Ryan Mann held to a combined 20 points on 10 combined field goal attempts. Gardinier’s 18 points led the way for the hosts on the scoreboard but he was followed in scoring by Lane Taylor, who scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half, and Jayden Miller who finished with 13.
“It’s tough when you have kids who are as big and athletic as Hines and Mann,” Westside head coach Michael Asbury said. ” They’re tough matchups for anybody. We tried a couple different things to keep them out of the paint and to keep them from getting easy ones and when you do that you’re going to have to give stuff to other kids and credit to them, they stepped up and made the plays and made the shots. Ultimately when it came down to it in the fourth quarter they made more plays than we did.”
While James Monroe’s role players stepped up, Westside’s emerging star crowded the spotlight in the opening half. Sophomore guard Bradyn Waldron torched the nets in the opening half, scoring 19 of his 25 points before the intermission.
His contributions, capped by a 3-pointer right before the end of the half, put the Renegades ahead 34-31 at the break. But after the break he was held to just one made field goal.
“Honestly we did what we were supposed to before the half,” Mann said. “We matched Ryan up with him and decided to put Ryan on who we think is their best player because he can really guard and it scares you a little bit. In all honesty in the first half we kept switching off and I said, ‘Why are we switching off?’ They were too passive in allowing those switches so we were allowing people that we didn’t want matched up all night and it was hurting us. The second half Ryan took a little more initiative to get him in control.”
The Mavericks found themselves struggling early in the third quarter, yielding a 3 to Braxton Waldron, a layup off a steal to Hendrix Cook and another layup to Bradyn Waldron, ballooning Westside’s lead to 41-31. But a quick 7-0 run that featured 3s from Miller and Gardinier quickly reestablished a hope that carried into the fourth quarter where the Renegades led 48-44.
That hope was quickly rewarded in the final frame.
A 3 from Taylor lit the fuse and the go-ahead long ball from Gardinier established favor for the visitors at 52-49.
Another trey, this one from Miller only compounded the success, pushing the advantage to 58-52, marking the last time Westside found itself within a possession. Gardinier effectively hammered the coffin later in the frame with his trey, pushing the lead to 65-55.
For the Mavericks it was a strong start to regional play and a result credited in part to an early season gauntlet. For Westside it was only the start of gauntlet that features five straight games against ranked opponents (Shady Spring, James Monroe, Wyoming East, Bluefield and Logan).
“That’s the whole thought process to the schedule that we have,” Mann said. “We played Woodrow, we played Shady, we played bigger schools that challenge us every night and really those guys we’ve talked about – Kadyn, Ryan and Bryce – those guys have been there enough that I’m confident in them. But these young guys, they really grow in these games and you could see tonight some of them needed the growing pains but it’s prepared us well. Big win. Huge win. We had to struggle from behind which I liked. We had to keep fighting.”
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