Dean's career night fuels Sherando boys in rout of James Wood

By MARK SAWYER | The Winchester Star

Jan 27, 2018

STEPHENS CITY — Senior Night is always special for those playing their final game on their home floor and Sherando senior Tad Dean made sure Friday would be memorable for he and three of his classmates.

Dean scored a career-high 27 points and helped the Warriors roll to a convincing 69-44 Northwestern District victory over Frederick County rival James Wood.

After a miserable December in which they lost six of their seven games, the Warriors (9-9, 5-4 district) have turned it around in January winning seven of nine. The only two blemishes on their record since Christmas are to Handley and Millbrook, the top two teams in the district. James Wood on the other hand has dropped nine of its last 10 games.

The triumph also caps a huge gut check for the Warriors, who played four games in five days this week, all district games.

“We’re playing much better than the first part of the year,” Sherando coach Garland Williams said. “The main thing is the guys are buying into what we want them to do. ... We only play two games next week and we need that little break so we can get some things squared away and get ready for the last couple of games and hopefully get in that top four for the district tournament.”

Dean scored 20 in the first half as the Warriors took control.

“I think we’re playing more physical defense and we’re playing up tempo and I think that’s when we play the best,” Dean said. “We just try to help each other on defense. I think we can be a little bit better, but getting back to .500 I think is really good. After the start we could’ve just turned it off but I think everybody has just been working hard and we were just tired of losing.

“Tonight will definitely be something that I’m going to remember.”

Dean opened up the scoring with a strong move in the lane early in the first.

Wood (6-12, 0-8) led 5-4 on a basket by Ben Smith in the paint, but it would be the last lead the Colonels would enjoy. Sherando took control from there and Dean had some help early. Junior George Gibson knocked down a jumper to give the Warriors the lead for good and spark an 11-0 run that gave the Warriors a 15-5 lead midway through the first. During the run senior Aaron Banks had two layups and Dean added five of his nine first quarter points.

The Colonels, who had lost three straight, fought back with five straight points and finished the quarter on a 13-6 run to trail 21-18. Wood’s leading scorer Cam Firebaugh buried a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points during the stretch.

James Wood’s biggest problem was it hit a scoring drought in each of the four quarters and the next two the Colonels just couldn’t overcome.

Wood pulled to within 21-20 on a short jumper by Trenton Campbell, but the Warriors were ready with the response.

Sherando’s T.J. Washington hit a pair of free throws that started a 12-0 run pushing the advantage back to 33-20. After Washington’s free throws, Matt McKay got a steal and turned it into an easy basket.

Then Dean took over.

He scored the next eight points of the game in a span of just over two minutes. After Firebaugh hit a jumper to stop the Sherando run, Dean drilled a 3-pointer to push the lead to 36-22 with 3:27 left in the half. The two teams played even until the buzzer as the Warriors took a 40-26 lead into the locker room.

Any thoughts of a Colonels second half comeback were put to rest in the first half of the third quarter. Firebaugh opened the third with his third 3-pointer of the night trimming the deficit to 40-29, but Sherando scored the next nine points to take a 49-29 lead.

The Warriors would continue to extend the lead as much as 26 points in the fourth quarter.

“They’re a good team, they’re a very disciplined team and they don’t make many mistakes,” James Wood coach Tim Wygant said. “We got kind of a string where we got three or four mistakes in a row and they capitalized on them. That happened pretty much two or three times in the game and that was pretty much the difference.

“... It was pretty much two or three stretches of two or three basket runs and that sounds like a lot but it’s literally 45 seconds where we didn’t do our jobs. If we fix that I think we can fix a lot.”

Dean was the only Sherando player in double figures but Banks, McKay and Michael Usa all scored eight points. Firebaugh led the Colonels with 20 points. Campbell added nine.