Lindside – The most important week of its regular season is off to a resounding start for James Monroe.
The No. 4-ranked Mavericks made a strong case for home-court advantage in next month’s regional tournament, toppling No. 3 Bluefield 77-58 Tuesday night in Lindside.
The victory was the result of a storm of statistics that favored the Mavericks with the major one being their rebound advantage. They out-rebounded the Beavers 43-17 while metaphorically rebounding from a poor first quarter in which they shot 3-of-18 from the field.
It all culminated in a second quarter that saw the hosts outscore Bluefield 29-9 while shooting a blistering 12-of-22 from the field.
“I thought a couple of things happened,” James Monroe head coach Kelly Mann said. “In the first quarter I thought we were getting pretty good looks and just rushing it a little bit. We kind of know that with Bluefield’s speed and athleticism, you’re just a tick faster and their closeouts are a little faster. Our guys feel that, you feel that on the floor and I think that was the difference in the first quarter. We were just a tick off and you could just feel it.
“We talked about just continuing to play, their legs will slow down and our minds will slow down and I think that’s what happened in the second quarter. Probably a combination of they had a little bit of fatigue start setting in and we calmed our minds down a little bit and kind of got used to their pace. And the ball started to go in and we really played a heck of a quarter.”
The Beavers never recovered from that quarter, shooting just 2-of-8 from the field throughout it and turning the ball over five times. The kicker? The damage didn’t come via James Monroe’s stars Kadyn Hines and Ryan Mann who combined for just five points in the first half.
It came mostly from Miller (who scored 13 in the first 16 minutes), Bryer Surface, Wyatt Mann and Gardinier.
“We watched on film, we know they shoot the ball very well,” Bluefield head coach Tony Webster said. “They got some great outside shooters and we watched the film from when they played Princeton and they shot 21 3s and made 14 so we know going in we’d try to run them off the 3-point line.
“They made some big shots. I thought Grayson (Parris) did a good job on the Mann kid – I think he had eight points. The role players just played really well and there’s a lot of things we need to correct – I take that back. Until we learned how to box out and rebound – our half court defense wasn’t really bad and we turned the ball over. I think the time when we had our turnovers were in bad situations. We’ve got a lot of things to fix and this is a bad loss for us.”
It didn’t take long for the Mavericks to find their footing after the opening frame.
Hines sparked the wave with a three-point play before Miller later converted on a layup that brought the Movs twitching two at 17-15.
Then the barrage hit. A Lane Taylor 3 was followed by a Bryer Surface 3, putting the Mavs ahead 21-17. Miller followed with two more layups before Mann pushed the advantage to 27-17, capping a 14-0 run. Bluefield all-stater Jase Smith broke the skid with a layup and Miller and Wyatt Mann continued the reign of terror, extending what became a 20-2 run for the hosts.
James Monroe pushed the lead to as many as 15 at 38-23 when Surface nailed the third 3 of the frame with the Mavs ultimately ahead 38-25 at the break.
“In all honesty – Jayden for example first,” Coach Mann said. “For the first two or three months of the season in practice (Miller) was that kind of guy. He was knocking down shots and he just played with comfort. He has skill level and he’s a good player. One day he was just killing them and he was kind of feeling himself in practice and I said, ‘Jayden, you’re a heckuva practice player but how about we put this into a game. This is the guy we’re lookin for and asking for in a game.’ I felt like it kind of clicked for him a little bit.
“It made him a little frustrated and maybe a little made at me and I was a little frustrated with him because I saw that guy in practice. I was like, man show up in a game with this guy … Those other guys, I love them being successful and that really makes us strong.”
Bluefield managed to cut the lead to eight points in the third quarter when Ricky Dunford hit a trio of 3s at 47-39 but they never got closer than that, trailing by double digits for all but one possession in the fourth quarter.
A pair of dunks from Hines in the final two minutes served as the cherry on top.
The larger implications from the result revolve around regional seeding, though. The two teams finish with a regular season split as Bluefield won in overtime at Bluefield in a game where the Beavers were missing Parris and the Mavs were missing Gardinier.
Bluefield has three regional losses, all on the road (Westside, Wyoming East and James Monroe) while the Mavericks have two, also both on the road (Bluefield and Wyoming East.
Each team still has a home matchup with East, the lone unbeaten in the region but out of region schedule favors the Mavericks who have wins over Class AAA Greenbrier East and Class AAAA Beckley as well as neutral court victories over Westside and Independence. Bluefield’s strongest out of region wins are against Class AAA Princeton (a team James Monroe has also swept) and Graham, Va.
“I told them, and we knew coming in this was a real pivotal game,” Webster said. “This game holds a lot of weight, I don’t care what anybody says. This wasn’t just a regular game because it holds a lot as far as seeding goes. But at the end of the day you can only control what you can control. If we’re two or three, it is what it is.
“To get to Charleston you have to play the best anyways so it doesn’t – it does matter but it don’t matter because we’ve done it before. We’ve had teams in the past that have went to Chapmanville and won, Westside and with the team we had last year that wasn’t very good came in here and won. There’s still al lot of basketball to be played.”
Hines and Miller scored 18 each to pace James Monroe while Smith scored 21 to lead Bluefield.
Bluefield
Davion Hickman 8, Amari Helm 7, Ricky Dunford 13, Grayson Parris 5, Devin Totten 4, Jase Smith 21
James Monroe
Kadyn Hines 18, Lane Taylor 9, Jayden Miller 18, Bryer Surface 6, Bryce Gardinier 14, Wyatt Mann 5, Ryan Mann 8
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