Handley boys thump James Wood for 16th straight win

By ROBERT STOCKS | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Following the opening tip, Handley’s Keevon Martin lobbed a pass toward the basket and senior Eli Bell finished it with a layup just seconds into Friday night’s Northwestern District and Conference 21 West boys’ basketball game against James Wood.

Bell’s layup signaled that the Judges were off and running — on both ends of the floor — and the end result was a lopsided 69-24 rout of the Colonels at Maddex-Omps Gymnasium.

Junior guard Michael Brown and junior forward Gus Wise led the Judges with 15 points apiece, and Handley’s defense limited the Colonels to single digits in all four quarters.

The Judges (20-1, 7-0 Northwestern District, 5-0 Conference 21 West) clinched the district title with their 16th consecutive win.

The Judges honored their three seniors — Bell, Quentin Davenport and Tyler Mudd — on Senior Night prior to the contest, and Wise said Bell’s bucket off a nice look from Martin really provided a spark for the team.

“Eli’s lob — that just set the tone from the beginning,” Wise said. “We just had a lot of intensity on defense. We got our traps and got our turnovers that we were looking for and just played with a lot of energy, so I was proud of that.”

Handley’s swarming defense caused James Wood (7-13, 2-5 district, 2-3 conference) to commit 12 turnovers in the opening quarter. The Judges used a full-court press sparingly, but their trapping in the half-court set gave the Colonels problems.

On one sequence, Brown stole the ball, pushed it up the court before dishing it off to Ra’Shaad Morris, who quickly found Kobe Tigney for an easy layup that stretched the Judges’ lead to 11-3 with 4:15 left in the opening quarter.

Tigney’s bucket came in the middle of a 15-2 Handley run.

James Wood forward Sam Costin’s reverse layup, that cut Handley’s advantage to 13-5 proved to be the Colonels’ only points in more than five minutes.

The Judges reeled off 11 unanswered points from there. Martin knocked down his second 3-pointer, and D’andre James capped the run with a layup to put Handley ahead 26-5.

Handley sophomore guard Tyson Long’s 3-pointer gave the Judges a commanding 29-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Nine different Handley players scored in the opening period (and the Judges’ 29 first-quarter points ended up being five more than Wood totaled in the contest).

Handley coach Jason Toton said he was pleased with how much energy the team had from the opening tip.

“I was happy with the seniors coming out and I thought they did a good job starting the game off and having some intensity,” Toton said. “Once the normal starters came in they picked it right up and got after it defensively, and I think that was the key. Defensively, we jumped on them and got out and ran and did the things we talked about doing.”

The Judges opened the second quarter on a 9-0 run, getting a steal from Brown, who ran the floor and finished with a two-handed dunk right in front of the Judges’ student section. Wise followed with the first of his three 3-pointers, giving the Judges a 38-7 lead that forced Colonels coach Tim Wygant to call a timeout.

“Eli caught the lob and after that we had energy for the rest of the game on defense,” said Brown, who noted that it was his first dunk. “Defense led to steals and that led to baskets. We got everyone involved — we’re not selfish.”

Handley kept that 31-point margin at the half, leading 46-15 after 16 minutes. The Colonels had more turnovers (20) than points in the first half.

Wygant said the Judges really took his team out of the game early with their intensity and quickness on defense.

“They’re active on defense and offense, and they rattled us in the beginning,” Wygant said. “We tried multiple combinations of personnel, and we really just couldn’t break through.

“It’s one of those games, from a coaching perspective, I think they won it in the first three minutes of the game. Not a whole lot you can do to recover when you get down that much. I think the guys were a little shell-shock.”

Wise and Brown led the Judges in the third quarter with eight and five points, respectively. Brown’s three-point play after he was fouled on a drive put Handley ahead 61-18 with 2:15 to go in the third. Sam Wise added two free throws with 1:56 left, giving the Judges their largest lead up to that point at 63-18.

Handley’s starters watched from the bench during the fourth quarter. Sam Wise and James added eight points apiece off the bench, and Martin finished with six.

Injuries forced James and Kevin Curry to miss the first game against the Colonels, a 63-46 win by Handley on Jan. 13. Toton said James and Curry both played against Skyline on Monday, but Friday was really their first game back with significant minutes. Curry finished with four points.

Tigney, who scored two points, rolled his ankle in the first half and did not play in the second half. Ten of Handley’s 14 players factored in the scoring.

“We did very good job of sharing the ball and that’s when we’re at our best,” Toton said. “It’s not just one person going out and scoring 20 a night. It’s spread out evenly all the way through and the kids really don’t care who gets it.”

Costin led James Wood with six points.

Note: Handley honored former basketball standout George “Edward” Grim, who played for the Judges from 1953-57, at the half of Friday night’s game. Grim, who was presented a plaque, still holds several team records 60 years later, including most points scored in a game — 50 in 1957; season scoring average 25.95 in 1957; career points 1,560 (17.9 points for a four-year average).

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