With two, three, and sometimes, four games on the schedule each week, high school basketball programs across Central Virginia have had to work hard to keep their teams fresh this year.
Tired legs have been a theme of the abridged 2020-21 season, particularly for teams that play one day after hard-fought games that went down to the wire.
That is the situation that the Albemarle boys found itself in on Thursday against Monticello.
The Patriots dropped a tough battle to Charlottesville on Wednesday — a game in which their starters rarely got any rest. But thanks to a few underclassmen off of the bench, Albemarle enjoyed a rare, comfortable 24-hour transition.
Albemarle, behind 42 points from its bench, cruised to a 76-40 win over Monticello in the Patriots’ regular season finale.
Seniors Will Hornsby and Josh Morse finished with their usual double-figure totals, 16 and 13 points respectively, but a few newer faces made their presence felt in the win.
Sophomore La’mari Parler and junior Teavon Wilson came off the bench to drop career-bests, 11 and 10 points, while helping the Albemarle offense hit its stride in the early going. Parler checked into the game late in the first quarter shortly after the Mustangs trimmed the AHS lead to just one. But less than a minute later, the Patriots were up by six, thanks to a three-point play and another pair of free throws from the speedy sophomore.
Wilson also got some nice minutes early on while the tired Albemarle starters were getting their feet back. The towering junior scored a big bucket in the face of heavy pressure midway through the frame to put the home team in double digits.
He played most of the fourth quarter as well, highlighted by a coast-to-coast dunk that brought the Albemarle bench to its feet. All 11 Patriots that played scored at least two points in the balanced effort.
“They performed well,” Albemarle head coach Greg Maynard said of his bench. “I kept telling them that ‘if you keep playing defense, I’m going to leave you out there’, and they did… It’s good for the whole team’s attitude when everyone gets to play. They played good defense, they moved the ball, and found open people, and I always like to see that togetherness when they’re in together.”
Carter Wesson added six points off the bench.
The reserves accounted for all but three of Albemarle’s 16 points first-quarter points. The Mustangs pulled to within four in the closing minutes of the opening frame, before Albemarle point guard Christian Humes — who finished with four assists — drew a foul at the buzzer, and went 1-2 from the line.
The lone foul-shot jump started a quick 10-0 Albemarle run that essentially put the game out of reach. Morse, who was scoreless in the opening frame, dropped six of the 10 points during the surge. Following a steal from Parler, Morse took it nearly coast-to-coast for a three-point play, which put the Patriots ahead by double digits for the remainder of the game.
Just as soon as Morse started to get rolling inside the paint, his senior counterpart, Hornsby began heating up from the outside. Hornsby found his sweet spot in the left-hand corner and knocked down four three-pointers on the night.
Between accounting for Morse down low and Hornsby on the perimeter, it was pretty much pick-your-poison for the Monticello defense.
“They were collapsing on [Morse] pretty good, and it just took a little quicker ball movement to get it in there to him,” Maynard said. “It took a little to get him a little more room when the whole defense was on him. He’s a good player, it’s just a matter of getting him the ball.”
Morse pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with his 13 points.
Leading by 16 at the break, Albemarle blitzed Monticello with another 10-0 run in the first 2:30 of the second half.
As impressive as the Patriots were on the offense end, Maynard was even more proud of the way his team defended the Mustangs. Albemarle kept Monticello off the scoreboard for the first four minutes of both the first and second quarters. The Patriots used a combination of a press and half-court defense to keep the Mustangs from ever pulling to within striking distance.
Albemarle was seconds away from limiting Monticello to 37 points for the second time this season, before Alex Provencio hit a three at the buzzer.
“We just tried to keep the players that penetrate from penetrating and the ones that shoot, we were trying to get on them real tight,” Maynard said. “They expected the game plan tonight- they don’t always do that, but they did tonight.”
Will Trout led Monticello with 12 points, while Stefan Matthews added 11. The Mustangs will conclude their season on Friday against Fluvanna, while the Patriots await their regional opponent for next Monday night.
