Handley 83 to 36 over Fauquier

[VerizonSportsFan]

18-6 end 1st qtr

39-21 @ the 1/2

74-26 end 3rd qtr

Millbrook travels to Handley Friday night for 7pm NWD Tourney Championship game! Millbrook was 61 to 48 winner over Sherando.

Both teams are advancing onto Regional play.

 

[VerizonSportsFan]

Handley boys crush Fauquier in district semifinals

• By MARK SAWYER | Special to The Winchester Star
  
• Feb 16, 2018
  

WINCHESTER — Finishing the regular season as district champions and undefeated in district play gets you a lot of praise and the automatic bid to the upcoming region tournament.

It also puts a huge bull’s-eye on your back.

Any concerns the top-seeded Handley boys’ basketball team would be in trouble against No. 4 Fauquier in the Class 4 Northwestern District semifinals were quickly put to rest though.


Seconds after winning the opening tip, Handley executed a perfect alley-oop slam dunk to Kevin Curry, which ignited a 17-0 run to start the contest and the Judges never looked back. Curry was one of four Judges in double figures as Handley pasted Fauquier 86-36 at Hunter-Maddex Gymnasium.

The triumph, Handley’s eighth straight, sets up a rematch against second-seeded Millbrook for the title. Handley swept the Pioneers during the regular season, accounting for Millbrook’s only two district losses.

“I just kept telling the guys throughout the week that we have to take it one game at a time and we can’t overlook anybody,” Handley coach Jason Toton said. “I knew they [Fauquier] was scrappy and they were gonna come in, get after it and play hard. I thought we jacked it up from the beginning defensively and having our defense create our offense.”

Six different players scored during the Judges’ 17-0 run to open the game. By the time Fauquier finally got on the board with just 1:48 left in the first quarter the Falcons had missed seven shots and turned the ball over 10 times.

“What makes this team special is it can be anybody on any given night,” Toton said. “They don’t care who gets the credit as long as we come out with the victory and that’s what’s great about this group.”

Handley (20-3) cooled off just a touch over the last three minutes of the opening quarter but still enjoyed a 18-6 lead. A balanced attack and a solid inside, outside game allowed the Judges to push the lead to 33-13 midway through the second quarter. Seven different Judges scored in the first half but no one had more than eight points at the break.

Fauquier (10-12) trimmed a couple points off the deficit by halftime but still trailed 39-21 at the break.

It only got worse from there as Handley made some adjustments.

“We preached some things at halftime because I think we were like 1 for 14 from the 3-point line but we were 16 of 20 inside the paint. I kept telling them we’ve got to go to our bread and butter,” Toton said. “I told them we’ve got to go with what was working.”

The Judges got their coach’s halftime message loud and clear. Over the first 1:30 of the third quarter, the Judges pounded it down low and D’Andre James responded. Over and over, the Judges hit James down low and he scored the first nine points of the third quarter, propelling them to a 48-21 lead.

With the Falcons concerned with James, it opened the door for another highlight alley-oop dunk by Curry that had the Handley faithful exchanging high-fives.


By the time the Falcons made their first field goal of the third quarter at the 5:24 mark Handley had increased the lead to 50-24, and it just continued to snowball.

Over the final 4:28 of the period, Handley blew the game open with a 22-0 run with many of the basketball coming on fast-break layups or offensive stickbacks. The Judges outscored Fauquier 35-5 in the third quarter.

With the game well in hand, the Handley regulars spent the fourth quarter cheering on the reserves and preparing for what figures to be a much tougher test against Millbrook.

“Millbrook-Handley is always a rivalry. We know they’re going to come in and it’s going to be a battle,” Toton said. “The last time we played them was back and forth. We know they’re a good team. They want to win a championship. Even though we’ve qualified for next week we’ve got to take care of business. Enjoy tonight and get focused for [the title game] and get ready for what we’ve got to do.”

James led the way for the Judges with 17 points. Curry (14), Keevon Martin (13) and Ra’Shaad Morris (11) also scored in double figures.

Reserve Michael Seely led Fauquier with eight points.

 

[VerizonSportsFan]

Millbrook boys clinch regional berth with semifinal win over Sherando

• By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star
  
• Feb 16, 2018

Millbrook’s Jordan Funk (20) drives to the basket for a layup against Sherando during Thursday’s Northwestern District semifinal. Funk scored 11 points in the Pioneers’ 61-48 win over the Warriors.

• Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star

Millbrook’s Ben Curtin defends against Sherando’s Matt McKay (0) during the Pioneers’ 61-48 win on Thursday. Millbrook travels to Handley for tonight’s title game at 7:30 p.m.

• Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — In knocking down seven 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and 16 seconds on Thursday night, the Millbrook boys’ basketball team gave its fans plenty to scream about.

But it wasn’t until the Pioneers started taking the ball to the rim on a consistent basis against Sherando’s 2-3 zone that they were able to make their fans feel good about their chances of extending their season.

Trailing by four points halfway through the third quarter, second-seeded Millbrook went on a 23-2 run that lasted until the 1:08 mark of the fourth quarter to emerge with a 61-48 win over the No. 3 Warriors in the Class 4 Northwestern District semifinals at Casey Gymnasium.


The Pioneers — who led 28-27 at halftime — went from trailing 37-33 with 4:25 left in the third quarter to taking a 56-39 lead with 1:08 left in the fourth quarter.

The victory puts Millbrook (20-4) into the championship game at 7:30 tonight against No. 1 Handley, an 86-36 winner over No. 4 Fauquier in Thursday’s other semifinal game.

Both the Pioneers and Judges will play in next week’s Region 4C tournament, which begins on Tuesday with semifinal play. Sherando’s season ends with a 12-12 record.

Millbrook held the Warriors to 1-of-13 shooting during the 23-2 run, and Pioneers senior Jordan Funk credited Millbrook’s offensive play for helping the Pioneers hold down Sherando.

“We got a couple of momentum shots that got us hyped on defense,” said Funk (11 points, six rebounds), one of five Pioneers who scored between nine and 11 points on Thursday. “It’s hard to score on anybody when they’re hyped.”

Down 37-33, it was a 3-pointer by Ben Curtin (nine points, all on 3-pointers, and five rebounds) that started Millbrook’s run, but the Pioneers were able to take the lead for good within two minutes and then extend it by attacking the basket.

With three minutes left in the third quarter, Isaac Brown (11 points, all in the second half) sliced through the lane to put Millbrook up 38-37. With 2:35 left in the quarter, Jordan Jackson (10 points, five rebounds, five assists) had a 360-degree spinning bank shot after encountering traffic at the rim to make it 40-37 Pioneers.

The last basket of the quarter came on the only bucket of the game from Dean Rocco, who put back a missed layup by Jackson with 23 seconds left. Rocco was fouled in the process, and he turned and screamed toward the opposite basket when his shot went in. Rocco then knocked down the free throw to send Millbrook into the fourth quarter with a 43-39 lead.

“What we talked about in the locker room at halftime was being a little bit more aggressive overall against the zone,” Millbrook coach Rob Harris said. “I thought in the first half we were a tad bit passive. We were letting the zone dictate to us how we wanted to play.

“We utilized some individuals in some different positions to get better dribble penetration, and we did a much better job in the second half of attacking the zone, and then dictating offense that way.”

Millbrook kept the offensive pressure up in the fourth quarter, with Brown flipping up a shot off the glass after a drive outside the left side of the lane to make it 45-39.

Down 46-39, Sherando went with a man defense for the last five minutes, but the Warriors still had a hard time keeping Millbrook away from the rim because of the Pioneers’ quickness and effort.

Trammell Anthony (10 points) made the crowd roar when he soared over a Sherando defender to put back a Brown miss, with Anthony’s knee hitting the back of the defender on the way down after the basket that made it 48-39 with 4:04 left in the game.

The Pioneers extended their lead to 56-39 before Tad Dean (game-high 13 points), knocked down the first of three Sherando 3-pointers in the final 68 seconds.

In the second half, Harris thought the Pioneers did a good job of forcing Sherando (8-of-28 shooting after halftime after the Warriors made 12 of 26 in the first half) out of its normal offensive sets.


The Pioneers did well to limit Sherando’s opportunities in the fourth quarter when the Warriors were missing all those shots, outrebounding them 14-7 in the fourth quarter after Sherando had a 24-23 edge through three quarters.

“We had some shots underneath the bucket, we had a couple of layups,” Warriors coach Garland Williams said. “In the season we’ve made those, and we just didn’t make them tonight.”

After starting the season 1-7, Williams was pleased with how Sherando turned its season around.

“All in all, from where we started to where we finished, it was a successful year,” Williams said. “Doing as well as we had done for the last month here, I’m very proud of these young men. They have nothing to hang their heads about. We gave it our best, and that’s all we can ask for.”

Banks added 10 points for the Warriors.

After losing all three meetings and falling to Sherando with a region berth on the line in last year’s Conference 21 West semifinals, Funk said it meant a lot to return the favor in all three meetings and defeat the Warriors with a region spot on the line this year.

“I went to [regions] my freshman and sophomore year, and to not go last year, losing to them, it made me mad,” Funk said. “This game, I was like, ‘I’m not losing again. I’m not going out like this.’”

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com Follow on Twitter @WinStarSport