The Shadow
What’s the best way to bounce back from a 22-point loss?
A 40-point win.
After losing 66-44 to James River on December 23, Coach Thumper Leitch and his Alleghany Mountaineers found the winning path with an 87-47 win over the Bath County Chargers Monday night at Mountaineer Gym.
The Mountaineers lit it up from the floor, shooting 67 percent (35 for 62) and 50 percent (7 for 14) from behind the arc.
Senior guard Victor Brown led the winners with 19 points, including four of the Mountaineers three-balls. Lucas Kirby added 13 points, while Brett Benoit finished with 10 points.
Cassidy Burns, Seth Bradley and Seth Thompson all finished with eight points with all eight of Thompson’s points coming in the fourth quarter.
“It always helps when you hit shots early. Victor (Brown) came out and hit a couple threes quick and that helped us break things open,” said Leitch. “I thought we passed the ball pretty well tonight. Sometimes we haven’t done a great job of that, but I thought we picked that up tonight.
“Most of our shots came off passes tonight and that is something that you always look for as a coach,” added Leitch.
Eric Gentry led the Chargers with 17 points and knocked down four three-pointers in the loss.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a Lucas Kirby steal and layup and a Brown trey from the top of the key. Gentry’s offensive stickback coupled with Colby Bosserman’s three knotted the score at five with 5:12 remaining in the opening stanza.
Brown knocked down another triple to give AHS an 8-5 lead they would never relinqush. Dillon Fry’s perimeter jumper pulled BC to within one (8-7) but Kirby and Brown knocked down back-to-back treys to increase the Mountaineers’ lead to 14-7 as Alleghany jumped out to an 18-9 lead after the first quarter.
Brown scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the opening quarter after going three of five from behind the arc and four of six from the field.
The Mountaineers used a 26-13 second quarter advantage to bust this one wide open.
Alleghany opened the quarter with an 8-0 run capped by four straight points from Benoit to take a 26-9 lead with 5:42 left in the first half.
Fry’s basked with 5:09 left in the quarter got the Chargers into double digits, but the Mountaineers kept pouring it on.
Benoit’s lane jumper made the score 32-14 before Gentry knocked down a three-ball to cut the Chargers’ deficit to 16 (32-16). Seth Bradley’s layup with 1:40 left in the half increased the Mountaineers’ lead to 39-19 and they led 42-19 before Fry added his second three-ball of the game to make it 42-22.
Alleghany led 44-22 at the half after a Bradley up-and-under layup with four seconds left before intermission.
Benoit scored all 10 of his points in the first half with eight coming in the second quarter.
A Tyler Crosier dish to Lucas Kirby opened the third quarter and Crosier followed with two more buckets to increase Alleghany’s lead to 50-22 before Gentry knocked down a three to make the score 50-25.
Burns’ basket with 3:33 left in the third quarter gave Alleghany a 60-28 lead and they led 64-29 following Kirby’s three-point play. Alleghany took a 73-34 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
A pair of Seth Thompson free throws with 5:02 left to play gave Alleghany a 75-39 lead. Gentry made his fourth three-pointer of the game with 3:09 remaining to make the score 77-46, but the Chargers would score just one point the rest of the way as Alleghany cruised to the 87-47 non-district win.
“There were some positives from this game. I thought we came out and defended them fairly well in the beginning,” said Bath County coach Dave Herscher. “But we just didn’t attack on the offensive end like we needed to and when we didn’t do that our defensive play started to drop a little bit too.”
Alleghany improves to 5-4 on the season and will open Blue Ridge District play Thursday at home against the Northside Vikings.
“They’re tough,” said Leitch, referring to Thursday’s game against Northside. “We saw them play last week and they are solid at every position. They shoot the ball well and they play good defense. We’ve got our work cut out for us.
“We haven’t been playing great lately, but we hope to get in a few good practices and get a little better prepared then what we have been over the break,” added Leitch. “They are a good team but that is who we have to compete with to win the district and we think we can compete with them. We just have to go out there and prove it.”
Alleghany made it a sweep with a 47-29 win in the preliminary.
Daniel Nicely and Jonathan Brown scored eight points to lead the Mountaineer JVs, while Ethan Dew added six. De’Andre Burks and Ethan Nicely added five points each and Rashad Chambers finished with four.
Chuckie Zimmerman added three points and Casey Smith, Brey Batten, Patrick Burns and Hunter Deisher rounded out the AHS scoring with two points each.
Xavier Smothers led BC jayvees with 12 points, while Matthew Quantz added six. Chris Nichols and Ryan Plecker scored four each and Michael Criser rounded out the Bath County scoring with three points.
