A year ago, the Western Albemarle’s boys basketball team’s season was already over due to a positive COVID test within the program, abruptly ending a campaign that had high hopes for the postseason.
Last night, the Warriors were able to completely flip the script in an intense 55-52 win over an Albemarle team that is having a fantastic season of their own. This win, however, was massive in a number of ways for the Warriors.
Monday night marks the first Jefferson District title for the Warriors since 2016, when a Ryan Ingram-led Western squad took down Austin Katstra and Albemarle in the district championship. With no district tournament this year, Western can fully claim the 2022 trophy and begin to focus on postseason play. On top of that, the Warriors went a perfect 14-0 in district play, a feat only a handful of teams have ever accomplished.
“It’s hard to do, go undefeated in the Jefferson, because it’s a really good basketball league” Western head coach Darren Maynard said. “It’s only been done a handful of times. To do it this year with some of the people we’ve had out with COVID and the injuries we’ve had…we have a lot of depth that has really come through for us.”
The Warriors came out of the gate locked on the defensive end, playing tough defense all night on a Patriots squad that had also been unbeaten in the district other than their sole loss to the Warriors just two weeks ago. Western led 26-17 at the end of the first half and sent Albemarle into the locker room frustrated.
However, the Patriots scraped together a massive comeback that spanned between the third and the fourth, kickstarted by a Christian Humes three and some lock down defense of their own. Albemarle got it down to 36-32, but Andrew Barrese scored a tough driving layup to end the third.
The momentum stayed with Albemarle, however, as the Pats continued to make big plays. Carter Wesson-who had a rough shooting night-finally knocked down a corner three to cut the lead to 40-38 with under seven minutes to go. After that, the Pats traded a layup for two La’Mari Parler free throws to make it 42-40. Wes Gobble answered and nailed a huge three to give Western a 45-40 lead with 6:02 left. Gobble has been a huge boost for the Warriors during the second half of the season with Isaac Sumpter sidelined with an ankle injury. The two were finally able to share the court together in Sumpter’s return and the result was fruitful for the Warriors.
“The way Wes Gobble has progressed while (Isaac Sumpter) has been out gives us two really good shooters that we feel like we can rely on.” Maynard said.
Western was able to push their lead to 49-43 with under four left, but La’Mari Parler stopped the bleeding with a tough layup to cut it back to four. Western was able to knock down some big free throws to put them back up 54-49 with under a minute left, but Humes nailed a deep three to get it back down to 54-52 with 35 seconds left. Lucas Farmer then missed both free throws and Albemarle called timeout down two with 4.2 left. However, Luca Tesoriere was able to force a huge back-court violation on Carter Wesson on the inbounds to give Western the ball back with 2.8 left. Farmer was able to knock down the second free throw and Albemarle’s half court heave did not go to give Western the huge win and district title.
“Coach the other day at practice said that we’ve never had a team had a 20-win regular season.” Sumpter said. “So that was a big goal for us…it was a really big win.”
Western finishes the regular season 20-1, their sole loss to a quality Riverside team where the Warriors did not have star big man Josh Sime.
The last team to go undefeated in the Jefferson was 2015 Charlottesville. The Warriors were always close to winning the district since 2016, but kept falling short, typically finishing second in the regular season and losing heartbreakers in the district tournament. Now, the Warriors have their district crown and look to keep their momentum rolling as the number one seed in an extremely tough Region 4D which includes perennial powerhouses EC Glass and GW-Danville. Western will host #8 Jefferson Forest on Friday in the quarterfinals.
The Warriors used an extremely diverse offensive attack against the Patriots. Farmer notched nine points and grabbed four boards, Gobble scored nine with four assists, Sime recorded seven points, four rebounds and four blocks, Tesoriere scored seven with three boards, Sumpter scored six in his return and Barrese scored five and dished out five assists.
For Albemarle, Wesson and Parler scored 14 a piece. Albemarle finishes with an impressive 18-3 record and will also head to an incredibly tough Region 5D which includes two storied Roanoke programs in Patrick Henry and William Fleming. The Patriots split with the two teams at the beginning of the year, losing to Patrick Henry on the road and beating William Fleming at home.
