Two timeouts during the 11-0 run couldn’t stop the bleeding. With turnover after turnover out near halfcourt, Albemarle gave Riverbend lay-in after lay-in.
In one decisive third quarter run, Riverbend blew open a close game at the half and turned it into a 61-46 rout and put Albemarle on the road in theCommonwealth District quarterfinals Friday night.
The Patriots, who’ll travel to Mountain View Friday night as the No. 5 seed, had 11 turnovers at the half and were down just four points, 28-24.
“I thought we would come out in the third quarter and play much harder and execute better,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “To the contrary we did worse.”
Riverbend outscored Albemarle 19-6 during the third frame, including four steals that led to run-outs and easy lay-ups. In the teams’ first meeting of the year, Andrew Mann had his way with Riverbend, getting to the basket on a regular basis off dribble-drives from the top of the key. The Bears packed the lane this time around and gave Mann, an excellent ball-handler for a big man, a lot of attention.
“Tonight I thought we cut him off earlier and made him give up the ball,” said Riverbend coach Eric Davis. “He’s real strong with the ball so we were trying to get to him before he got to the goal.”
When Mann, who’s the focal point of nearly every defensive strategy Albemarle faces because of his versatile skill set, was able to kick it out of the collapsing Riverbend defensive set, Albemarle struggled to hit open shots, which compounded the ball-handling problems.
“They adjusted to the way we beat them the first time and we didn’t execute the adjustments we should have been making,” Maynard said.
Mann finished with 11 points and six rebounds while Jeremiah Morris had nine points. Jake Hendrix managed to post a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Trevon Walton led Riverbend with 19 points while teammate Devin Roy finished with 14.
Maynard was particularly disappointed to surrender a chance at the Commonwealth’s first round home game with a raucous crowd that was loud until the very last shot Tuesday night. The loss almost assures that’ll be the final home game of the year for the Patriots. Albemarle celebrated senior night before the game, honoring Hendrix, Michael Ledford and Kwanzaa Parker.
