All it took was 29 points from Gary Morris, 18 points each from Jordan Gentry, Markel Williams and Joe Joe Krynitsky, but thanks to another triple-digit output, William Monroe survived its rematch track meet of a basketball game with Stuarts Draft, 119-90.
“I think the players like it, but as a coach, I know I don’t like playing against that,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “It’s like a tennis match, back and forth. They jack up shots as soon as they get the ball, and if you can survive their press, it’s an easy layup. It’s a crazy game.”
Monroe entered the third quarter with a slim 2-point margin but took advantage of its strong guard play behind Morris, Gentry and Austin Batten combined with its skilled ball handling forwards in Williams, Krynitsky and Markel Faulkner to break down the Cougars VMI-influenced approach.
“They’ve only lost to us, Spotswood and Waynesboro so that’s three pretty good teams, two them really good (Group AA) teams ” Maynard said. “Their coach came up to me and said he was looking forward to playing someone else that didn’t have the same type of players we have. Our guards really help us out, Markel Williams is getting more comfortable as a ball handler and Markel Faulkner, he’s so tall he can see over everything they’re doing. So that allowed us to break their trap.”
As such, Monroe took its 2-point margin and added 10 points to it going into the fourth. Little changed after that and so the fourth quarter and the game belonged to the Dragons.
In addition to the four players that scored 18 or more for Monroe, Faulkner put together nine points and 11 rebounds. Lamar Nelson had eight assists to go with 10 points. Gentry converted four 3-pointers.
The Dragons (3-1) get their first taste of Bull Run District play against Strasburg on Tuesday at home at 7:30 p.m.
