By David Selig
The Winchester Star

Winchester — To send a message about commitment and practice habits, Tommy Dixon had five of his Handley High School boys’ basketball players in street clothes at the end of the bench Friday night at James Wood. Based on the way his eight players in uniform competed, it seems that the message got through.

The Judges raced out to a 19-6 advantage in the opening quarter and held a lead of at least eight the rest of the way, defeating the rival Colonels 66-49 and taking sole possession of second place in the Northwestern District. “I guess they wanted to play,” Dixon said. “They came out and they did a real good job on the defensive end of the floor, and they did a great job on the offensive end. ... It’s good to see that, with a depleted lineup, the guys stepped up. I’m proud of them.”

David Carter, Geremi Long, Delroy McDaniel, Derek Dowrey and Jaron Carey each watched in street clothes for the Judges. (Carey has been out with an injury.)

Dixon did not specify the exact reason for their absence, but when asked about it, he referred to a quote he made after an overtime loss to Sherando on Tuesday night about players showing up late for practice and not working hard.

Senior forward Terrance Sloane, who had 10 points and seven rebounds Friday, said that was a fair assessment.

“We haven’t been working as hard as we should, but I think we stepped it up the past couple of days to get prepared for this game,” Sloane said.

It sure looked like it early.

Handley (4-4, 3-1 Northwestern) connected on five of its first eight shots while holding James Wood (4-8, 2-2) to a 1 for 6 start from the field. That gave the Judges an 11-2 lead before Colonels coach Al Smith called for a timeout with 5:13 on the clock.

Wood center Mason Smith didn’t even last that long, picking up two fouls in less than two minutes and earning a seat on the bench for the rest of the half.

With Mason Smith out, Handley controlled the action on both ends of the floor.

The Colonels shot just 19 percent (6 of 32) from the field in the first half, and they went into the locker room trailing 29-13. It might have been even worse if not for 14 Judges turnovers before the break.

“In the first half, we were just flat,” Al Smith said. “No energy. No enthusiasm. I thought we were trying to do too much individual offense and not run what we do. I thought Handley dictated to us what we do offensively with their defense.”

With Mason Smith back on the floor in the third quarter, it was a different story.

Smith scored all 10 of his points and grabbed four of his six rebounds in the third, as the Colonels fought to within eight points on three occasions.

“When he’s on the floor, we defend better, we play offense better and we rebound better,” Al Smith said of Mason Smith, his son, who ultimately fouled out with 3:25 remaining. “Without that, we’re missing a lot of things.”

Handley’s lead was 10 when the fourth quarter began, but Al Smith needed to sub out some of his key players from the third because of fatigue.

Wood pulled to within eight once more when Brock Lockhart (eight points, seven rebounds) finished two straight layups off passes from Trae Tinsman with just over six minutes left. But the Judges took control of the tempo again and slowed the game down.

In the final 5:06, Handley connected on 16 of 18 free throws, leaving the Colonels no chance to cut into the lead.

For the game the Judges shot 82 percent from the line, a drastic improvement from their 56 percent effort Tuesday against Sherando.

“That’s what we have to do if we want to win games,” Handley point guard Jeremiah Wilson said. “We’ve been getting up in a couple games and then we just go one pass and shoot the ball. We got that big lead and they started to come back, so we had to get the game back in control, slow the game down.”

Dixon said he was also pleased with his team’s scoring balance. Mitch Smith led the Judges with 18 points and eight rebounds, but they also got 11 points from Robbie Lawler, 10 from Sloane, eight apiece from Wilson and Eric Palmer, and seven from Trae Peck.

Wilson acknowledged that this game could be looked at as a turning point for the Judges, especially if they take notice of their coach’s message and work harder the rest of the season.

“Nobody wants to sit on the bench, so I think that’ll make them want to practice harder in practice so they can play,” Wilson said of the players who missed the game. “I think it’ll just motivate them to play harder.”

Asked if he expects those players to return to the court when Handley visits Martinsburg (W.Va.) on Monday night, Dixon smirked before answering.

“We’ll find out tomorrow at practice.”

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