Handley boys complete perfect district season by dunking James Wood

By MARK SAWYER | Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With the regular season Northwestern District title, the top seed and a bye in next week’s district tournament and a bid to the Region 4C Tournament already wrapped up, it could have been very easy for the Handley boys’ basketball team to overlook its final regular season game against last-place James Wood.

However with an opportunity to finish the regular season unbeaten in Northwestern District play, the Judges had no intentions of slipping up against a longtime rival.

Three Judges scored in double figures as Handley overcame a sluggish start to roll over the Colonels 71-36 Friday at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

For Handley (19-3, 12-0 district), it was the eighth straight win and 10th in its last 11. The Judges will host a semifinal tournament game next Thursday. Wood dropped its ninth in a row and 14th in its last 15. Wood (6-16, 0-12) will travel to No. 2 Millbrook on Tuesday night for the first round of the district tournament.

“We started out a little slow,” Handley coach Jason Toton said. “We tried to do some new things defensively and we haven’t had a lot of time to work on them. They shot the ball real well and made some shots when they needed to. They sat back in a zone and I don’t think we attacked it that well at the start and when we’re not making shots we can’t get into our trapping defense. At the beginning, I don’t think we did a good job but we started getting after it in the second quarter and got going offensively.”

Handley never trailed in the game but didn’t blow it open from the opening tip. The Judges did lead 8-2, but the pesky Colonels weren’t intimated and battled toe-to-toe for the first six minutes. A 7-3 run (with all seven points from Trent Campbell) pulled Wood to within 11-9 with 2:05 left in the first quarter.

Seven straight by the Judges pushed the lead to 18-9, but then the fireworks hit.

Campbell brought the home crowd to its feet by drilling a long 3-pointer with five seconds left to pull Wood to within six, but Handley’s Michael Brown took the inbounds pass on the fly. Once he hit halfcourt, Brown took two more dribbles and launched a shot that found nothing but net as time expired giving the Judges a 21-12 lead.

With the Handley crowd still on its feet and buzzing, Brown ignited it again to start the second quarter with a steal and a slam dunk.

Over the next two minutes Wood’s Cam Firebaugh hit two 3-pointers to cut the margin to 25-18 with just under six minutes left before the half, but that’s as close as the Colonels would get.

Handley turned up the defensive pressure and forced several turnovers and poor shots. The result was a 9-0 Handley run and the Judges finished the half outscoring James Wood 23-4 to take a 48-22 lead into the locker room.

The Judges came out in the second half and showed the crowd the many different ways they could score, and put on a show doing it. Handley scored the first 10 points of the third quarter and it was all sparked by a highlight reel alley-oop dunk to start the period.

Mere seconds into the third quarter Brown laid a perfect pass just to the right of the rim where Kevin Curry grabbed it and slammed it home.

Campbell knocked down another 3-pointer to end the 10-0 run and pull Wood back to within 58-25 but that would be the last time Wood scored until the final minute of the quarter.

In the meantime, Handley ran off another 10 unanswered points extending the lead to 68-25. Six of those points, all in a row, were works of art.

With Handley leading 59-25, Brown started a dunk contest. It began when he stole the ball near the top of the key and raced down court for a two-handed slam.

The next two times down the floor, Curry went back to work and took two perfect passes from Sam Wise for two more alley-oop dunks, the second a reverse behind the head slam, both of which would make any highlight reel.

Handley outscored the Colonels 20-5 in the period to take a 68-27 lead into the fourth quarter.

“(Handley) shot the ball great tonight, that was a big difference between this game and last game,” James Wood coach Tim Wygant said. “With that being said I think we played better this time than last time. We were able to execute a little bit more. Their pressure really got to us there in the second quarter.”

Brown led Handley with 14 points followed by Curry and Gus Wise with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Campbell scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Colonels. Firebaugh added 14.

Regional ticket info set

Tickets to Northwestern District postseason basketball games are $6 and no school, local, or district passes can be accepted. The only acceptable passes for tournament games are VHSL, VHSCA, and VIAAA.

The Northwestern District Tournament opens play Tuesday. The semifinal games are slated for Thursday with the championship games on Friday.