Kettle Run holds off comeback by James Wood boys

WINCHESTER — Heading into the Class 4 Northwestern District Tournament, the James Wood boys’ basketball team had high hopes of a deep run and a possible berth in the upcoming Region 4C Tournament.

Kettle Run had other ideas on Thursday in a quarterfinal game at Shirley Gymnasium.

Twice in the first half the Cougars built leads of 11 points, and they held a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

A furious James Wood rally brought the home crowd to life and put the outcome in doubt, but No. 6 seed Kettle Run made five out of eight free throws in the last two minutes of the game and were able to just hold off the No. 3 Colonels 49-45.

Three Cougars scored in double figures led by Drew Tapscott’s game-high 17 points. Garrett Trimble added 11 and Jordan Tapscott 10 for Kettle Run (9-10), which advances to play at No. 2 Handley (12-11) in the semifinals on Tuesday.

The 13-10 Colonels had defeated every other team in the eight-team district at least once this year, so there was plenty of reason to believe they could make a deep district tournament run.

“The kids fought hard and they executed the game plan well,” James Wood coach Tim Wygant said. “I feel like when we play Kettle Run they make a lot of shots. They hit a lot of tough shots at the beginning of the game to jump out to that lead and we just couldn’t crawl all the way back.

“They made one or two more shots then we did, one or two more free throws and had one or two less turnovers then we did and that was the story of the game. It was a tough one but I’m proud of our guys. They fought like crazy. They’re resilient.”

Mere seconds into the fourth quarter Drew Tapscott’s layup gave Kettle Run (9-10) a 39-29 lead.

With its season on the line James Wood began to battle back. Senior Jerome McCarthy (eight points) started a five-point Colonels run with a short jumper.

Next time down the floor junior Connor Ballentine’s three-point play pulled Wood to within five. His free throw made it 39-34 with 6:59 left in the game.

Down 41-34, McCarthy hit one of two free throws to start a 6-0 run.

Playing in his first game after sitting out all season due to injuries junior Ben Smith (seven points) hit a pair of free throws and senior Ethan Russell made one of two making it 41-38 with 4:46 left in the game.

Nearly one minute later the Colonels forced a turnover in the Cougars backcourt and Ballentine (team-high 14 points) brought the home crowd to their feet when his layup made it 41-40 with 3:47 remaining, forcing another Kettle Run timeout.

That’s as close as the Colonels would get. Following the timeout Drew Tapscott got free in the middle of the lane scored and was fouled. His free throw made it 44-40.

With less than a minute left in the game Wood again pulled to within one on Ballentine’s offensive putback and a layup by Lavaughan Freeman which made it 45-44 with 55 seconds left, but Kettle Run knocked down four free throws to secure the victory.

Things didn’t start well for the Colonels. Just 30 seconds into the game junior Jacob Medina went down with what appeared to be a leg injury. He was helped from the court and didn’t return to the contest.

Kettle Run never trailed in the game and jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead and held a 14-7 advantage after one period of play thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Jordan Tapscott and four points by brother Drew.

With 3:52 left in the half Kettle Run built its second 11-point lead (23-12) on a fast break layup by Drew Tapscott.

In the last two minutes of the half Ballentine hit two 3-pointers to help Wood battle back into the game and trim the deficit back to seven (30-23) at the break.

The Cougars outscored Wood 7-6 in the third quarter and held a 37-29 lead heading into the final eight minutes of play.

A year ago, James Wood didn’t beat anyone in the regular season during a one-win campaign, so Wygant said the Colonels had a lot to be proud of.

“Our guys started out the season and no one gave them a chance,” Wygant said. “No one thought they were going to be any good.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win at the end [Thursday] and that’s kind of what we said at the beginning of the year we wanted to do in every game. And for the most part that’s what we did in every game.”

Russell added seven points for James Wood.