Millbrook boys hold off James Wood

By MARK SAWYER | Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Millbrook’s boys’ basketball team hasn’t had a home game in more than a month, but that hasn’t hurt the Pioneers too much.

The Pioneers entered Saturday’s Conference 21 West and Northwestern District game having won five of their last eight games.

In the team’s final regular-season road game, Pioneers juniors Ben Curtin and Trammell Anthony led the way for Millbrook with 14 and 10 points, respectively, in a 51-44 victory over James Wood at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

“We haven’t had a home game since December so just coming on the road and winning — winning a conference and district game that counts — is huge for the kids,” Millbrook coach Ben Bates said. “This is our fourth win in a row. We’re trying to build some momentum going into Tuesday night when we play Handley at our place.”

With James Wood (5-9, 0-3 Northwestern, 1-2 Conference 21 West) trailing 43-38 and just under four minutes left, Aidan Houser went to work. With 3:56 left in the game, he started top of the key, drove near side and made an off-balance layup that pulled his team to within three.

After a Pioneers’ turnover Houser, who scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, hit a short jumper that made it 43-42 with 2:04 remaining, but that’s as close as the Colonels would get.

Following another time out, Trammell drove the lane, connecting on a driving shot and drawing the foul. His free throw pushed the lead back to 46-42 with 1:35 remaining.

From there, the Pioneers (9-7, 2-2 district, 1-2 C21) made just enough free throws to continue extending the lead and finish the game on a 8-2 run.

“Our answers always came on the defensive end, and I think the kids are starting to take a little pride in [that],” Bates said. “Getting defensive rebounds, getting stops. Right now our best offense is getting a defensive stop and getting out in transition and running.”

Curtin helped the Pioneers early in the contest. He buried a long 3-pointer with less than one second left and was fouled on the shot. He hit the free throw for a rare 4-point play that gave Millbrook a 14-7 lead after the first eight minutes of play.

“We came in and our only goal was to win. It was a conference game and we knew that,” Curtin said. “We wanted to come out and compete and win.”

The second quarter started very much like the first. After a Wood basket by Trenton Campbell cut the lead to five, the Pioneers went on a 6-2 run, building their biggest lead of the night on Curtin’s second three of the game that put the Pioneers ahead 20-11 with just over six minutes left in the half.

However, the Colonels still had plenty of fight in them. Down 24-16 with 2:25 remaining in the first half, Wood started to battle back into the contest and did most of the damage from the free-throw line.

Over the final two minutes of the first half, Wood outscored Millbrook 8-1, hitting 6 of 9 from the free-throw line during that stretch, to cut the lead to just 27-24 at the break.

Cameron Firebaugh did most of the work, hitting 4 of 5 from the line during the run and finishing the first half with six points.

James Wood made a run during the third quarter.

The Colonels finally regained the lead on a 3-pointer by Ben Sear that made it 29-28 with 3:17 left.

On the next trip down the floor, the Colonels took their biggest lead of the game on an offensive putback by Noah Sullivan for a 31-28 lead with 2:40 left.

Following a timeout, the Pioneers came right back down the floor and answered.

Back-to-back hoops by Curtin and Anthony gave Millbrook the lead back at 32-31. A long 3-pointer by Taralle Hayden with three seconds left in the third capped a 7-1 run by the Pioneers that gave Millbrook a 35-32 advantage heading into the final frame.