It was a simple, but effective approach — let Josh Sime go to work inside.
“That was the game plan, go inside,” said Western Albemarle coach Darren Maynard. “And he played really well and they’re pretty physical, it wasn’t like they just gave him the points, he had to work for it but he played very well.”
Western had a significant size advantage over Orange County underneath and the 6-foot-8 Sime served as the Hornets’ primary antagonist, scoring 18 first half points. Once the Hornets figured out ways to contain Sime, it was too little too late as Western rolled 66-44 for their second win in as many nights.
“We’ve got to (take) the momentum from yesterday and today and keep rolling with it,” Sime said. “Everything was working for us, everybody was moving the ball, everyone was getting touches.”
Sime finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds for a monster double double and while the bulk of that effort came in the first half, the attention Orange turned toward trying to collapse on Sime and slow him down opened the door for Andrew Shifflett to score 17 points in the second half after a scoreless first half where he was plagued with foul trouble with a dizzying array of jumpers and drives.
Orange ran into the conundrum that most teams will face with Western if Sime and Shifflett are both locked in — it becomes a game of pick your poison. Press out and try and pressure Shifflett, Sime has room to operate. Collapse and Shifflett has a lot of room to operate.
Shifflett got into foul trouble before the break in part because he was trying to guard the area’s hottest scorer currently, Sihle Mthethwa. The Hornets’ senior guard was averaging 36.7 points per game coming into the night and finished with 26 points, six boards and four assists, but the bulk of those 26 came with Western in control of the game in the second half.
“I’m really proud of the way he’s coming out and battling — he’s starting to get a lot of attention,” said Orange coach Adam Utz. “He’s playing hard on the defensive end as well as the offensive end and I think a lot of times that goes unnoticed. He’s fearless and he’s a leader.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the Hornets managed just 19 points between them. The Warriors’ height created all kinds of issues for Orange as Western built a 34-18 lead that proved insurmountable for the Hornets.
“Anytime you play Western Albemarle you know what you’re going to get they’re fundamental,” Utz said. “I thought we did a good job with our effort tonight, it’s tough to be off for 18 days and then come out here tonight, but I was much happier with our effort tonight (versus Tuesday night in the win over Madison).”
Western got seven rebounds from James Meenan and five from Isaac Sumpter who also knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and dished out four assists. Lucas Farmer had three assists and four steals to go with his nine points.
Orange has two more games this week after winning against Madison Tuesday and dropping the clash with the Warriors after having just a single day of practice on Monday since the program came out of a pause. Western is contending with a similarly rigorous schedule where they’ll play five games in seven days by the time they play Saturday
“We’re so happy to be playing right now I’m not going to complain,” Maynard said. “We’re going to get them in as fast as we can.”
