Sherando Boys Hang On Against James Wood, 57-50

Posted: January 6, 2016
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With a double-digit lead and less than three minutes to play, Sherando coach Garland Williams said he talked to his team about having patience with each possession the rest of the way against rival James Wood.

The Warriors apparently didn’t take that message from Williams to heart in Tuesday night’s Northwestern District season boys’ basketball opener against James Wood.

Sherando watched a 53-41 advantage dwindle down to just three points with 1:00 left, but junior guard Alex Morefield knocked down all four of his free-throw attempts in the final 13 seconds to help the Warriors hold on for a 57-50 district victory at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

“That 10-point lead really evaporated because they got steals out of those situations and that was just poor execution on our part,” Williams said. “As a team, we’ve got to be better with that because a 10-point lead with the basketball — the [other] team can’t score so we’ve got to be better with that. We had some really bad, ill-timed turnovers that were just unforced errors there.”

The Warriors (7-4, 1-0 Northwestern) appeared to be in control when Morefield knocked down his first bucket of the contest — a 3-pointer with 4:45 left to play that kick-started a 9-0 Sherando run.

Jared Miller scored four points, knocking down a runner in the paint and then driving for a layup, and Isaiah Armistead capped the run with a short jumper to stake Sherando to a 53-41 lead with 2:58 left.

From there, James Wood got five straight stops on the defensive end and that allowed the Colonels to battle back.

Vince Lew’s 3-pointer from the left corner cut Sherando’s lead down to five, and Chandler Brooks capped the 9-0 run with a driving layup — his first points of the quarter — to make it a one-possession game at 53-50 with 1:00 left.

After Miller missed on a jumper on the Warriors’ ensuing trip down the court, Lew missed a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left and Sherando called a timeout.

Morefield — who was scoreless through three quarters — closed out the victory from there, going 4 for 4 from the free-throw line for the final margin.

“We had a lot of turnovers [late] and just not being poised with the ball,” Morefield said. “Since we had the lead — we should’ve held the ball but we just ended up forcing it and turning the ball over. We can learn a lot [from] this game.”

Morefield and Miller combined for 14 of Sherando’s 18 points in the fourth quarter. Armistead finished with 11 points for the Warriors.

“When we were up in the fourth quarter we just need to hold the ball and stall out more,” said Miller, who led Sherando with 16 points. “[It wasn’t] very good — too many turnovers. But we closed out it with Alex finishing on his two [trips] to the foul line.”

Colonels coach Tim Wygant credited Sherando’s effort, particularly early in the contest

“We came out with very little energy in the first half,” said Wygant, whose team shot just 3 of 14 from the field in the opening quarter. “We settled for shots that we normally don’t settle for. We were impatient in the first half and then got too patient in the second half and missed opportunities.

“Offensively, we just couldn’t put the ball in. They switched to a 2-3 zone [in the second half] and we had some real trouble. We got quality shots against their 2-3 zone, they just didn’t go in.”

James Wood (7-4, 0-1 Northwestern) never trailed by more than six in tightly contested first half.

Brooks, who scored a game-high 17 points — including a steal near midcourt that he followed up with a dunk in the opening quarter — and a team-high eight rebounds, helped James Wood rally to take its first lead by scoring five straight points. His steal and layup cut Sherando’s lead to 20-19 with 3:10 left in the first half.

Lew’s jumper, off an assist from Brooks, put the Colonels ahead for the first time at 21-20 with 2:45 left.

The score was tied twice in the closing minutes before Sherando answered, getting four straight points off the bench from Ashraf Alim to take a 27-23 advantage at the half.

Brooks and Robert Jackson — who scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half — were the only Colonels in double figures.

Jackson said his team did a nice job to fight back after falling behind by 12 late in the fourth quarter.

“We worked hard to make some good defensive plays and we had one stretch where we had five turnovers in a row,” Jackson said. “We kind of lost focus and were just lackadaisical on defense and just let them stretch back out their lead.

“We just have to focus the entire game for 32 minutes. If we can do that, I think we can do good things.”

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.