Wood rallies for 76-64 win over Woodgrove

January 12, 2012
By Greg Brill
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- This was the kind of effort James Wood boys' basketball coach Al Smith had been hoping to see from his defense.

Sure, the Colonels have been thrilling on the offensive end, putting up high numbers, game after game.

But when Woodgrove and its dangerous sharpshooter Brad Gilson put up 46 points in the first half on Wednesday night, Smith knew his team had to bounce back quickly in the second half with an all-out effective full-court pressure defense.

Down just eight points at the half, the Colonels worked hard all over the floor in the second half and made the final quarter a nightmare for the Wolverines.

James Wood fed off four turnovers by Woodgrove to start the fourth and ran off an 11-0 run to rally back for an impressive 76-64 victory in Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

"We talked at halftime about picking up the tempo, because it had been slower than I would have liked," Smith said. "And we talked about shading over and finding Gilson. Just get in the passing lane so they couldn't fire it right to him.

"We changed to a different press coming out for the second half and picked up the intensity some more. We got some turnovers. We picked it up some, then all of a sudden, we went on a little run there." The Colonels, who opened their season with an 18-point loss to Woodgrove in Purcellville, outscored the Wolverines (8-6) 38-18 in the second half on Wednesday and forced 26 turnovers in the game, including 10 in the fourth, when they outscored their guest 22-8.

"This defense takes a lot of practice and we still don't have it completely down," said James Wood senior Chad Potter, who sparked the win with nine of his 13 points in the fourth period. "We've really worked hard on it in practice."

Woodgrove came unglued at the wrong time and could not keep up with the Colonels when it mattered most.

"We had 13 empty possessions before we scored [during James Wood's crucial run]," Woodgrove coach Steve Douglas said. "They were missed shots, turnovers. Missed shots, turnovers."

After giving up 88 points to Clarke County in an overtime loss at home on Saturday, Smith had stated that his squad would work more on becoming a better defensive squad once practice commenced again on Monday.

The Colonels (6-7) came out with plenty of effort to start their game with Woodgrove, getting a trio of 3-pointers from Nick Foura (team-high 15 points) and opening with a 12-7 lead.

The Wolverines then called timeout, and the move seemed to settle them down somewhat.

A last-second bucket by T. J. Bruce gave James Wood a 14-13 lead after one period, but Gilson quickly took over and had a marvelous performance in the second period.

With a rapid-fire release, Gilson buried five 3-pointers and scored 20 points in a 33-point second period by Woodgrove that helped it move ahead 46-38 at the break.

Gilson, who rarely looked to drive against the Colonels, even when he had an avenue to do so, shot 6 for 8 from 3-point range over the first two periods, with at least three of his made long shots coming from what would have been NBA range.

Being able to keep Gilson, the co-scoring leader (31.2 points per a game) in the Washington metro area, from continuing to shoot lights out was a task the Colonels were ready to take on when the second half began.

Gilson did get two quick baskets in the third period, but he would not score again. In fact, he took just two shots (both 3-point misses) and was stuck on 29 points (10-of-18 shooting, 6 of 10 from 3) over the last 15:05 of the game.

Gilson, who had games of 55 points (against Park View) and 43 (against Handley) in a pair of losses last week, had the Colonels complete attention over the final two periods.

"He's a heck of a player," Potter said. "When we finally made adjustments in the second half, we had to make sure we were talking on the court. I think we did a good job [on Gilson] in the second half."

"They ran a lot of people at us and doubled us a lot, and our rotations were poor," Douglas said. "We just didn't execute, and when you don't execute, the shots get a little tougher to fall and you start getting behind. And we didn't execute on the defensive end either."

The Wolverines would have other players look to score, but the Colonels were all over the court to either force tough shots or step in to force turnovers.

A 10-0 run in the third was the first big spark for the Colonels, but they still trailed 56-54 heading into the fourth.

Then, just like that, James Wood swung the momentum back in a big way.

In the first 51 seconds of the period, Woodgrove fell apart and had turnovers on its first four possessions. The Colonels responded by scoring nine straight points to take a 63-56 lead.

When Ryland Williams scored off a drive with 6:13 left to cap the spurt, the lead was nine.

The lead would not slip below seven after that.

Besides forcing 10 turnovers in the fourth, Wood committed just five fouls in the second half and did not allow Woodgrove to go to the line over that span.

"We really stressed defense after our last two games [in which James Wood gave up a combined 195 points]," Smith said. "We added some additional presses. It's some of the ones we've used, but we made some adjustments to not give up easy layups."

James Wood also had quality possessions, committing just eight turnovers and allowing just four points off giveaways in the second half.

Carter scored 11 points (three 3-pointers), Taylor Edwards nine (all on 3-pointers), and Williams and Brett Lewin each scored eight for James Wood.