Chapter IV of Maury/Green Run Awaits
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style='font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>5A-South
Regional Tournament Quarterfinals:
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Final - - #1 Maury 69, #2 Warwick 55:
Final - - #2 Green Run 50, #1 Menchville 43:
style='font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>Commodores Hold Off
Warwick's Rally:
style='font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
style=>
line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>It would be hard to
replicate the first quarter that the Maury Commodores had in the opening round
of the 5A-South Regional Tournament on Monday night at Kellam
High School in Virginia Beach against the PenSouth
Conference Tournament runner-up Warwick Raiders.
style=> They greeted their visitors from Newport News
with a 25-8 first quarter burst on their way to a 69-55 victory.
style=>
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Maury moves on to the regional semifinals on Friday and
sits a win away from their eighth State Tournament appearance under longtime
Head Coach Jack Baker.
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"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Baker, who saw his Commodores move to 23-2 overall on
the season, made a change to his starting unit following their 58-52 loss to
Green Run in the Conference 9 Tournament Championship that ended a 14-game
winning streak. He decided to insert
6-foot-6 senior forward/center Shyheim
class=SpellE>Draughan, nicknamed 'Six,' into the starting lineup.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We changed the lineup a little bit and thought putting
Six in would give us a little more energy and help us
on the boards, and it did. It got us off
to a good start. I thought we lost focus
and played okay the rest of the way, but good enough to hold on," stated Baker,
glad to see his team bounce back in a positive way.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"They're resilient kids.
style=> It was kind of like the same thing that
happened after Cape Henry beat us. Our
next game was Green Run, which was a heck of a lot more important than Cape Henry
at that time. The other night, I thought
we wanted to win and Green Run surely outplayed us.
style=> That's one game that really didn't mean
anything, and we had a regional game on Tuesday that meant something to us."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Making sure Maury got off to the right start was their
outstanding 6-foot-2 freshman point guard Matt
Coleman, who scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter
alone. He had a pair of three-point
plays and the Commodores capitalized on eight turnovers by Warwick in the
opening period.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Warwick, which closed out an improved season that
featured their first regional trip since 2008 with a record of 13-12, showed
lots of spunk in battling back. Trailing
by as much as 21 points, the Raiders went on a 14-2 run in the third quarter,
keyed by Glenn Travers' seven points
in the stretch.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Travers was Warwick's leading scorer with 17, followed
by junior Lewis Freeman's 12
points. Freeman also chipped in eight
rebounds, five assists and three steals.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Playing an unorthodox style both offensively and
defensively, Warwick had Maury befuddled for much of the third quarter.
style=> They weren't going to go away quietly it
appeared.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We only had one day to prepare for them, and that
concerned me about us being prepared for everything they throw at you," Baker
noted. "They run at least five or six
different defenses at you. We had to be
able to adjust, and fortunately when you have somebody like Matt it makes it a
lot easier because he sees probably more things than I do on the sideline."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>But with time ticking down in the third quarter, Maury
re-gained control. Coleman delivered a
slick trick when he inbounded the ball off a Warwick defender's back, and
scored to stop the bleeding.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"He does it in practice every now and then, but I wasn't
expecting it," admitted Baker. "I
thought he'd try to throw a lob to Six or something.
style=> It really was a big play because they had
some momentum going until that play."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>In the fourth and final quarter, Maury got lifts from a
number of different sources, most notably reserve junior guard
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>David Reed and sophomore starting small
forward Anthony Williams.
style=> Reed scored 10 points - - six in the fourth
quarter - - on 5-of-7 shooting. Williams
finished a whisker short of a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds,
plus made two key steals in the final period.
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style='font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>Green Run Eliminates
class=SpellE>Menchville:
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style=>
line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>It has been a season of
milestones for the Green Run Stallions.
A week ago, the program secured its first 20-win season since 1996.
style=> By besting Maury in the Conference 9
Tournament Championship this past Saturday at the Norfolk Scope, the Stallions
won their first postseason trophy of any kind since 2008.
style=>
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>With their 50-43 victory over PenSouth
Conference Tournament Champion Menchville, Green Run
was able to avenge a double-overtime regional playoff loss to the Monarchs from
two ago and move to 22-4 overall. They
also notched the program's first regional postseason win in ten years when they
beat Lakeland before being ousted by eventual State Champion Woodside in the
quarterfinals.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"It was a tough matchup because they have two
ultra-quick guards, and that hurt us," admitted Menchville
Head Basketball Coach Dennis
class=SpellE>Koutoufas, a man with 428 career wins that has taken
Heritage and Denbigh to the State Playoffs four times.
normal'>
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Every time Menchville (18-7)
tried to make a run, Green Run had an answer.
The Stallions also buckled down defensively, limiting the Monarchs to
15-of-55 shooting, just 27.2%. That
included 3-of-14 shooting from long distance with no makes in the second
half. Outside of a 42-point effort in a
win over Phoebus on December 10th, it was the Monarchs' lowest output of the
season.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We strive to play great defense and pride ourselves on
that every time we go out there. We
threw a couple wrinkles at them and executed the game-plan well," stated Green
Run Head Basketball Coach Kenneth Harris,
whose team is giving up the fewest points per game of anyone in the state at
the 5A level. "It was a little scary because
I was noticing that all our losses were with us scoring under 50 points.
style=> I'm sitting there saying that we're still
close and defensively we're right there."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Green Run closed the first quarter on a 9-2 spurt,
converting 6-of-10 from the field with no turnovers.
style=> They forced Menchville
into five turnovers during the second quarter and got up by as much as 11 while
only turning it over twice before the half.
The Monarchs drew within eight on a three-pointer from junior swingman
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Richard Washington.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>That would be the only three-pointer made on the night
by Washington, who burned Hampton for 34 points the week before with seven
treys.
normal'>Tyler Blount led the Stallions with 15 points.
style=> Senior forward
normal'>Jamaal Matin recorded a double-double with
10 points and 11 rebounds.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Another Green Run senior,
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Demitri
normal'> Wilson, widened the lead to as many as 15 early n the fourth
quarter on a three-pointer and dunk in transition, forcing Koutoufas
to burn a time-out. On the inside, ECU
football signee Shaun James made it
hard for Menchville to score in the paint as post players
DeQuon
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Lake and
normal'>Elijah Murphy were a combined 4-of-17 with eight points, well below
their norm.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"He was able to keep them out of the lane, and we were
not physical," Koutoufas said of James.
style=> "They played great defense and the shots we
took didn't go down. Normally, we shoot
class=GramE>better than that."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Although Menchville got
another splendid performance from guard Devin
Hinson with 18 points, the Monarchs couldn't get any closer than seven
points down in the fourth quarter.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We're trying to finish games strong and one thing we
tell them is to value the ball. We
struggled a bit at the end, took a couple bad shots and have to do a better job
of valuing possessions to keep moving forward," added Harris.
style=> "Hat's off to Menchville,
though. They play hard and are extremely
well-coached."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Next up for Green Run is a chance to make even more
history. They face Maury for the fourth
time this season, Friday night at Churchland High School in Portsmouth. Before last weekend's win over the Commodores, Green Run suffered two of their four regular season losses to them. The stakes this time are even greater than before as one team will be officially eliminated from postseason play, while the other moves on to the State Final Four, something Green Run hasn't experienced since 1984.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"It's a do-or-die game and they looked good," Harris
remarked of his upcoming opponent. "That
first half, they were all over the place, and again, Matt Coleman is an unbelievable
player on a great team. We've got to be
ready for a battle."
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