Aidan Yates rose up and buried a three from the wing and then Nasir Sumpter knocked down a three in front of the student section to push the Charlottesville lead to six with exactly two minutes to play.
But, in a way, it was the play just before that sequence – and the hustle and scrappiness it embodied – that was the reason the Black Knights held on for a 59-55 victory over Albemarle.
On that play, Luka Matic got the ball tipped away as he tried to pass to Sumpter after Albemarle stopped a secondary fast break. Albemarle gained control and tried to force it into the middle, but Marjaylen Jackson re-defended, batted it away under the basket and saved it with an improvised behind the back pass as he fell out of bounds. Jacoby Lynch had to sprint back and dive to knock the loose ball away from an Albemarle player and then Matic grabbed the loose ball as he fell to the ground near the free throw line. Matic signaled for a timeout, maintaining possession and setting the stage for Yates’ three that gave CHS the lead for good.
“Our defense was really the game changer, this was really the first game we played 100 percent the whole game, we were making second and third efforts every time,” Matic said. “We were rebounding, we were diving on the floor, we were just playing really hard.”
That play and the hustle from every member of the lineup from opening tip to the whistle is the reason the Black Knights held on to that lead for a critical victory over Albemarle that ended a two-year drought against their cross-town rivals. It was CHS’s first victory over the Patriots since February of 2021.
“The last few games we have really started off slow and I thought from the beginning, all the way to the end, we gave great effort,” said Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor. “They were diving on the floor, we really gave the kind of effort that goes a long way.”
Yates was a big reason why, scoring 22 points and grabbing five boards, with nine of his points coming in the fourth quarter.
“Aidan is starting to find his rhythm and we’re doing pretty good working inside-out because we’ve got some good shooters,” Minor said.
Matic and Jackson were the other big reasons CHS had enough offense to get it done as the 6-foot-11 Matic and 6-foot-4 Jackson went to work in the second quarter. Matic had six of his 15 points in that frame and Jackson had seven of his 11 there, with Jackson scoring in a variety of ways including a turnaround fadeaway.
“We weren’t getting anything out of our press in the first half so I got out of it and that’s when they started pounding us inside so much,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard.
Matic had 10 boards and Jackson grabbed seven.
Albemarle countered the Black Knights’ size with speed as their guard-heavy lineup tried to push and run most of the night. They took things up a notch after Sumpter’s three extended the lead to six and managed to force Yates to ice it at the free throw line after Hayden Yow scored twice in the closing minute to cut the lead to 56-53 and then Ben Wesson drew a foul while shooting a three with 11 seconds left and made two of his three free throws.
Albemarle fouled Yates and he hit one of two to make it 57-55. The Patriots raced down court and Benny Koutone’s drive glanced off the side of the rim. Yates collected the rebound and hit two free throws on the other end to make it 59-55 and set off the court storming celebration.
Wes Gobble finished with 15 for the Patriots while Wesson had 10 and Koutone had nine.
Albemarle has played a brutal schedule to open the year, capped by rivalry games with Western and Charlottesville in the last six days. They’ll face Orange County at home Friday night.
“We’ve played some really good basketball teams here in December and we’ve got Orange tomorrow who just played these guys Tuesday in a real close game,” Maynard said. “Hopefully it’ll pay off at the end of the year with all these tough teams and make us a better team in the long run.”
The Black Knights will have a quick turnaround too with Louisa coming to town Friday.
“We’ve been losing to these dudes for like two years since I was on the team, so this means a lot to the seniors especially,” Matic said.
