Fast Start Helps Colonels Defeat Clarke Boys, 55-37

Posted: February 1, 2016
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

BERRYVILLE — James Wood dominated the first and third quarters Saturday afternoon to get back on the winning track with a 55-37 non-district boys’ basketball victory over Clarke County on Saturday.

The Colonels (12-6), who lost to Sherando on Thursday, jumped all over the Eagles (3-14) by opening the game with a 12-2 run that culminated in a thunderous dunk from Chandler Brooks, forcing a Clarke County timeout.

“The team gets pretty hyped when anybody on the team dunks so it’s big momentum,” Brooks said.

The fast start helped James Wood outscore the Eagles 13-6 in the first quarter.

“The main thing we were really concentrating on was a significant increase in energy. We didn’t seem to have passion last week,” said James Wood Coach Tim Wygant. “I don’t know if it was the snow or time off and we only got in the gym once in a week’s time. I think that either mentally developed a malaise in our head or we just weren’t mentally focused enough to give the output that we expect earlier this week against Sherando. I think we really responded today and really focused.”

Clarke County closed the gap to eight before the half and set itself up for a potential comeback that never developed.

“It was an eight-point game at the half as poorly as we played,” said Clarke County Coach Brent Emmart. “We just kept turning it over and couldn’t find the offense to get back in the game. We just struggled like we were running in sand today. You can’t do that against a good team like them.”

The Colonels received tremendous output from a trio of players scoring in double figures. Brooks scored a team-high 13 points, Costin contributed 12 and Christopher Vitagliano added 10.

Overall, 10 different Colonels factored in the scoring.

“Sam [Costin] did a good job establishing himself early in the post and made a couple of very of good shots,” Wygant said. “Chandler made some very good shots. He was getting some penetration. He was getting hit a little bit and probably wasn’t going to the free throw line as much as he should have been but he really set the pace and made them focus on stopping his north-south penetration. Chris Vitagliano also stepped up huge. The contributions across the board were very good.”

Emmart said Brooks proved to be a matchup problem for his club.

“Obviously No. 22 [Brooks] just breaks us down,” Emmart said. “He’s a tremendous athlete and you have to give him a lot of attention. We tried to contain him in transition and we had a hard time doing that tonight. He made plays all over the floor.”

The Colonels once again came out of the locker room for the third quarter and established their dominance, holding the Eagles to six points in a quarter for the second time in the game and established their offense.

“We played great offense and defense,” Costin said. “Our defensive intensity in the first half was definitely where it needed to be and we picked it up even more in the second half. Our subs were making good plays too. That helped us go on to a big win.”

Wygant said it was important to establish some confidence early against the Eagles and he liked his team’s effort to start the second half.

“I’m a firm believer that you win a lot of games the way you play in the third quarter,” Wygant said. “I think that we really stepped it up in the third quarter. I think that was the key to the game. You have to finish the game better than you start. We saw some guys contribute well that usually don’t that quickly. We really focused on positive plays. Not just scoring the basketball but on defense and diving for balls and hustling. Scoring the basketball takes care of itself when you do that.”

The Colonels will need more of those positive plays going forward with games against Millbrook and Handley next week.

It was important that James Wood showed it could outscore an opponent in every quarter and come away with an impressive 18-point road victory.

“I thought we played really well,” Brooks said. “Our defense was great and on offense we converted on a lot of plays. When we are patient we are a real good team. We need to rotate the ball around and set screens to find the open looks.”