Sherando Boys Defeat Wood For Williams’ 250th Career Win

Posted: February 15, 2016
By WALT MOODY
The Winchester Star

STEPHENS CITY — Sherando coach Garland Williams was one win from a milestone as his team met James Wood in the quarterfinals of the Conference 21A boys’ basketball playoffs on Saturday.

Point guard A.J. Outler and his teammates made sure their coach got it.

Outler scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors turned back the Colonels 67-60 to give Williams his 250th career victory.

Third-seeded Sherando (15-9) advanced to Tuesday’s semifinal clash against second-seeded Handley (13-7) at Hunter Maddex-Jimmy Omps Gymnasium at 7 p.m.

Outler said the Warriors were well aware of milestone for Williams, who has spent the last 19 seasons leading the program. Knocking off the sixth-seeded Colonels (14-10) didn’t come easy as the Warriors sank 14 of 19 free throws in the final period.

“It means a lot,” Outler said of No. 250. “It means a lot more to me than it does to him because we helped him get it. He’s the coach so everything we do is an extension of him. We had to fight and execute to get him that win. I’m proud.”

Williams appreciated reaching the milestone, but passed the credit around.

“I’m thankful a long time ago Les Cummings gave me the opportunity to coach,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to have some good players and definitely a good coaching staff. You don’t just win games by yourself. If you think that, you’re in trouble.”

The contest was certainly in doubt most of the chilly afternoon.

Sherando led by just two points (44-42) entering the final quarter and that lead was sliced to a point three different times early in the period as both teams struggled offensively.

Leading 49-48 with 3:30 to go the Warriors put together a key 6-0 run. Jared Miller started it with a basket and Outler capped it by knifing through the lane for a 3-point play to make it 55-48 with 1:37 to go.

Vincent Lew’s fourth 3-pointer of the game cut the margin to four with 1:23 remaining, but Outler never let the Colonels get closer. He scored on another drive and went 5 for 6 from the line over the next 43 seconds to push the margin to 62-54 with 32.9 seconds left.

Outler said he felt no pressure to take control in the stretch run.

“I don’t feel like I had to,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of people on my team. All I have to do is play my part. They gave me the gap. Everybody else was scoring so they were more worried about them. It opened it up for me and I took it.”

Sherando nailed 11 of 13 free throws over the final 1:37. The Warriors finished the game 19 for 27, while James Wood was 4 for 9.

“Sherando made their free throws,” Wood coach Tim Wygant said of what won the game. “We probably had five or six opportunities to tie the game or get it to a one possession game. Some of our shots went in. We were getting two every other possession, but they were getting two every possession because their free throws were going in. Give them credit. They stepped up in crunch time. A.J. made his free throws like crazy. He killed it in the fourth quarter.”

Williams pointed to several factors as the key down the stretch.

“I think we did play a little better defense,” he said. “It may not have seemed like it. We had some opportunities where we were able to get to the bucket. A.J. was able to get himself to the bucket a couple of times and draw some fouls.”

The free-throw shooting was sweet redemption for Outler, who missed the front end of a key one-and-one as Harrisonburg closed with a 10-0 run to win 66-64 Wednesday, knocking the Warriors from the No. 1 to the No. 3 seed.

Outler said he kicked himself with every miss in practice.

“I was telling myself I’m going to keep missing if I keep that negative energy with me,” he said. “I had to get positive and try to move on.”

The Warriors also had a short time to recover from the loss to Harrisonburg.

“Honestly, we had to hold our heads high and get prepared for this game,” Outler said. “That’s all we really could do. If you stress too much, it’s going to really hurt you.”

While they had beaten Wood twice in the regular-season, the Warriors knew they had their hands full, especially with guarding the Colonels’ Chandler Brooks. The 6-foot-2 sophomore scored 21 points on Saturday, many baskets following his own shot.

“Chandler must have had 10 or 12 points shooting it, going and getting his rebound and sticking it in,” Williams said. “We were on our guy, telling him to stay with him, but that’s a tough assignment because [Brooks] gets off the floor very quickly.”

The contest featured 13 lead changes and six ties.

Lew nailed a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter which ended with the score tied 12-12. The contest was tied at 19 late in the second quarter before Outler’s two baskets capped an 8-4 run to give the Warriors a 27-23 halftime lead.

The Colonels rallied and pulled ahead at 34-33 on a basket by Robert Jackson. The contest was tied at 37-37 when Miller swished a 3-pointer from the right corner with just under a minute left in the quarter. Later, Lew’s 3-pointer cut the Wood deficit to 44-42 entering the final period.

“It’s tough to play anyone three times and get three wins out of it,” Williams said. “Each time it could have went either way.”

Miller netted 15 points and Isaiah Armistead, saddled most of the first half with foul trouble, added 14 for the Warriors.

Lew had 12 and Andrew Hinebaugh had 10 for the Colonels.

Wygant pointed to a play late in the fourth quarter that typified his team’s season.

“We set up that press and they threw it off the bottom of the rim and the ball was bouncing in the lane,” he said. “It went right to them. That almost represents the entirety of our season. We’ve lost a lot of close games. It was right there for us and we were just a little bit short or slow to the ball.”

Wygant said his team did meet his goal of giving itself a chance to win each game. He loses seniors Hinebaugh, Jackson and Colin Watts, but is optimistic about the future.

“A lot of our production returns,” Wygant said. “I hope our kids are excited to get back into the weight room and to start fixing what we need to fix.”

Sherando’s immediate future deals with Handley. The Judges have beaten the Warriors twice this season, 65-62 and 66-60 in a pair of thrillers.

“They’ve gotten us twice,” Williams said. “We’ll try to do some things to slow them up a little bit. Definitely we have to do a much better defensive job.”

Outler broke into a smile when asked about Tuesday’s clash.

“I can’t wait,” he said.

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