Western Albemarle’s boys basketball team made short work of Salem Friday night. Leaning on a serious size advantage underneath, Western rolled 65-38 over Salem in the Region 4D quarterfinals, advancing to the semifinals and a shot at a state tournament berth.
“I think we had good energy all night tonight,” said Western Albemarle Coach Darren Maynard. “I thought we played well even in the first half we made a couple of defensive errors but holding them to 38 points is really impressive. They are a really good offensive team.”
The Warriors got there in part by exploiting that height advantage as both Josh Sime and James Dahl notched three blocks, with Dahl bouncing one off the backboard in the second half. Elliott Kessler and Dylan Bergert chipped in a block each.
Western also cleaned up on the glass with Sime posting a double double with 12 points and 11 boards while Dahl had six rebounds to go with his 10 points, largely on stickbacks. With Wes Gobble scoring 14 to lead the way offensively, Western was in a good position to take advantage of that strong defensive effort.
If Western can keep getting that kind of clean defensive effort, it’s going to pay huge dividends as the region tournament continues.
“It’s that time of year where it is playoffs and it’s just about survive in advance,” said Aiden Sims, who scored eight including a pair of second half 3-pointers.
Western will host Jefferson Forest in the region semifinals Tuesday with a state tournament berth and a spot in the region final on the line.
“It’s another high-powered offense like it was today,” Kessler said. “We stayed strong on defense and we’ve been working on that all week. Holding them to lower than they get normally is the key honestly.”
