Blackburg’s normally prolific three-point shooting hit a snag Monday night in the Patrick Henry gym. In the first half, the Bruin bombers couldn’t find the city.
In the third quarter, however, they were dropping them down the enemy’s smokestack.
Coming out of the halftime break on fire from behind-the-arc, Blacksburg hit eight three-points in the third quarter alone for the come-from-behind 61-52 win over the Patriots in River Ridge boy’s action.
“At halftime I told the guys to just keep shooting,” Blacksburg head coach Doug Day noted afterward. “We have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball. I knew they would eventually start falling.”
Blacksburg couldn’t throw it in the ocean in the first two quarters. Long range shots found iron, and 14 turnovers only made things worse. That enabled Patrick Henry to break away from a 17-16 lead in the second quarter with 10-2 run that sent the Patriots to a 27-18 advantage heading to the halftime break.
When Blacksburg hit their first two attempts from long range to start the third quarter, things snowballed in a hurry. The Bruins finished the frame with an octet of bombs, most of which were the nothing-but-net variety. Grayson Shelton poured in three, Jake Schirmer and Jacob Nottingham two each and Brandon Walters one. Walters added an old-fashioned three-point play and a lone two pointer by the Bruins effectively polished off a 29-point third quarter and 29-10 run that sent the teams to the final frame with Blacksburg up 47-37.
“When we hit those two straight 3s to start the second half, everyone got in a comfort level,” Shelton said outside the Bruin locker room. “All of us were feeding off it. PH kept giving us space and we got hot.”
“Those were some big three-pointers,” Day noted. “Once we hit the first one, we kept rolling. PH is a very good team.”
The Bruin lead reached 14 in the fourth quarter before PH made things interesting by going on a 10-2 run that made it 55-49 after Patriot senior Zedric Barnett hit from behind-the-arc with 2 minutes remaining.
After the teams traded two free throws, Marcus Terry cut the PH deficit to 57-52 with a free throw that would end up being the last Patriot score of the game. Blacksburg closed things out in the final 1:16 with four points from the charity stripe.
“It was all about defense,” Patriot head coach Jack Esworthy said in the PH locker room. “In the first half, we had people on their shooters. We quit playing defense in the third quarter, they got space, and we made it easy for them.”
“The same shooters that were missing in the first half were making shots in the third quarter,” Esworthy added. “Not to take anything away from Blacksburg, but it’s a big difference when you’ve got a hand in their face. We weren’t anywhere near their shooters in the third quarter. It was the worst quarter of defense we’ve played all year.”
It was Blacksburg’s eighth win in their last nine games.
Schirmer led the Bruin scoring with a game-high 17 points, while Shelton added 16. Walters knocked down 12 points and Nottingham posted 11 for Blacksburg.
On the PH side, Terry poured in 13 points with Sam Boxley hitting 12 points for the Patriots.
– Bill Turner
