Millbrook can't recover from Liberty's offensive explosion
Millbrook's Tarelle Hayden pushes the ball up the floor against Liberty's Russell Morton during Friday's Class 4 Northwestern District game at Casey Gymnasium. Hayden had 29 points and Morton had 20 as the Pioneers had their 10-game winning streak snapped in a 73-67 loss to the Eagles.
- WALT MOODY/The Winchester Star
Millbrook's Ben Oates shoots over Liberty's Dakota Lindsay (44) during Friday's Class 4 Northwestern District game at Casey Gymnasium. Oates had 18 points and nine rebounds in the Pioneers' 73-67 loss to the Eagles.
- WALT MOODY/The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — One of the big reasons the Millbrook boys' basketball team had won 10 straight games entering Friday's Class 4 Northwestern District game against Liberty was its defense.
The Pioneers had allowed an average of 46.8 points during the streak.
So imagine the surprise for Millbrook to see Liberty put up 43 points in the first 16 minutes at Casey Gymnasium. The Eagles built an 11-point halftime lead and held on for dear life in the fourth quarter to hand the Pioneers their first district loss with a 73-67 victory.
Russell Morton netted 20 points for Liberty (10-6, 5-4), including a key 3-pointer in the fourth quarter after Millbrook had the ball with a chance to get even. Taralle Hayden had 15 of his game-high 29 points in the final period as the Pioneers nearly pulled off the comeback.
While the last eight minutes were exciting, it was the first two quarters that doomed Millbrook (12-5, 8-1).
The Pioneers got off to a solid start and led 16-10 after Ben Oates' stickback with two minutes to go in the first period, but from there Liberty sliced through the Millbrook defense with repeated success.
The Eagles closed the first quarter with an 8-0 run to take the lead and Millbrook would never get even again. Liberty then opened the second quarter with six straight points to take a 24-16 lead.
Millbrook was able to close within 29-27, but Morton and his teammates caught fire again. They closed the final 3:30 on a 14-5 run to take a 43-32 lead at the break.
“You can't give up 43 points in a half,” Millbrook coach Steven Grubbs said. “The credit goes to Liberty. They played well. … Obviously 43 points in a half is far from what we are looking for.
“It was one of those things where there were breakdowns all across the court. You wish it was just one thing that you could look at. When you give up 43 points in a half, it's a full breakdown of the defense.”
Morton had 14 points and Derrick Brooks added 10 in the half, mostly on drives to the basket.
“For some reason, we come out and like to shoot threes,” Liberty coach Pat Frazer said. “We talked really about attacking, attacking, attacking. We did well attacking, especially in that second quarter.”
Morton nearly didn't get the chance to have such a big period.
“We were about to sub him in the first half,” Frazer said. “He hit a two and another two and I said I'll just keep him out there.”
The Eagles pushed the lead as high as 17 points (52-35) in the third quarter and entered the final period ahead 56-43.
But Liberty has struggled at times to hang onto leads, including an early 22-point margin in a loss to Handley.
Led by six points from Hayden, Millbrook ran off the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 56-54 with 5:15 left.
“It's something that we told them before the game is that we have to attack,” Grubbs said. “I think in the fourth quarter we started to started to push the ball out a little bit and get some defensive pressure on them.”
The Pioneers had a possession that could have tied it, but turned the ball over on a pass inside.
The game took a complete turn from there.
Morton, scoreless since the second quarter, drained a 3-pointer.
“That was huge,” Frazer said.
“That's a back-breaker,” Grubbs agreed. “You fought so hard to get to that point and now you're back down five.”
It would only get worse for the Pioneers.
Another turnover gave ball back to the Eagles and before Millbrook would get it back it would be down 11 points.
Liberty's Tre'von White was fouled after the turnover. After he made the first free throw, a Pioneer player was hit with a technical foul. White made his second shot. Dakota Lindsay made the two technical free throws and Brooks drove to the basket for two points.
In a span of 22 seconds, the Liberty lead ballooned from two points to 65-54. Throw in a steal and a basket from White on Millbrook's next possession and Liberty led 67-54 with 3:50 left.
Hayden and Jordan Jackson wouldn't let the Eagles coast to the win. Hayden had six points and Jackson had four in a 10-1 run that cut the margin to 68-64 with 52 seconds left. Hayden's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 70-67 with 17 seconds left, but the Eagles made 3 of 4 free throws to close it out. For the period, they made 10 of 12 attempts.
It was a sigh of relief for the Eagles, who Frazer said had to be thinking about other blown leads.
“It's hard not to isn't it,” he said. “It was free throws [that made the difference]. We're a 56 percent free-throw shooting team. I think maybe we missed one or two down the stretch.”
“It was back-and-forth there in the fourth quarter there for a little bit,” Grubbs said. “They would pull ahead then we would come back. It's so difficult when you're down 11, 12, 13 points. You are using so much energy to get back then you run out of time.”
Morton and Brooks (17 points) led a balanced attack for the Eagles, who had eight different players score. The victory avenged a 61-60 loss to Millbrook, which began the Pioneers' win streak.
“We were in the dumps last week,” Frazer said. “We had a lead on Handley and they came back and beat us and did a great job. Kettle Run, a rival, they beat us. We kind of put ourselves in a hole. To come up here and face an 8-0 team, a great team that hasn't lost in 2020, that's a huge win for us.”
Oates, who especially kept the Pioneers alive in the first half, netted 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Hayden added four assists.
With James Wood's last-second loss at Culpeper County, Millbrook still has a two-game lead with five district games left on the schedule.
Grubbs said his team will look to rebound quickly.
“You learn everything from losses that you can,” he said. “Right now, we'll just kind of think about it for the next couple of hours and we have three games next week, so our mind has to go straight to Fauquier [on Tuesday]. … There's really no time to dwell on this.”
