Sherando boys top Colonels

February 24, 2011

By David Selig

The Winchester Star       

STEPHENS CITY- The fourth meeting of the season between the Sherando and James Wood boys' basketball teams followed a similar script to the first three.

But in this final act, the Warriors relied on some of their understudies.

With two starters out because of injuries, Sherando's bench scored 28 points, leading the Warriors to a 44-37 win over the rival Colonels in a Region II Division 4 quarterfinal.

Sophomore Aaron Miller - called up from the junior varsity before the district tournament - scored 10 points, and reserves George Asare, Dominique Porter, Jalen Brisco and Taylor Ruths each chipped in four.

"Without those guys, we don't move on," Sherando coach Garland Williams said.

The No. 3-seeded Warriors (13-11) advance to face No. 2 Liberty (18-6) tonight in Bealeton. The game will follow the Sherando-Liberty girls' game, which tips off at 6 p.m. Sherando was certainly the favorite to get to the semifinals after comfortably sweeping the regular season series with James Wood (6-19) and then defeating the Colonels 67-51 in Friday night's Northwestern District final.

But the Warriors were without forward Jalen Harris from the start of Wednesday's game because of a sprained ankle, and then starting guard Tre Porter injured his left knee with 3:40 left in the first quarter.

Porter left the gym on crutches and with the knee wrapped, and he is not expected to play tonight.

Williams said he thinks Harris "will be OK for our future games."

With both sidelined, Sherando turned to some unheralded names.

After Chad Potter gave James Wood a 12-6 lead on a free throw with 6:40 left in the second quarter, junior reserve Devon Newman canned a turnaround bank shot for the Warriors.

Miller followed with three straight buckets, pulling Sherando ahead 14-12 at the 4:34 mark of the second.

"Tre controls everything, so I thought I could go in there and try to do maybe as good," Miller said.

Miller said he's been surprised to get some postseason playing time since being called up off JV, and in complimenting his play, James Wood coach Al Smith admitted he didn't even know Miller's name.

His contribution was crucial, though. Starting center Terry Wood had 12 points and six rebounds for Sherando, but the rest of the Warriors' starting five combined for just four points.

Points came at a premium for both teams through the first three quarters.

With the teams each playing active zone defenses - and each knowing the other's tendencies - the score was just 20-16 in favor of James Wood heading into halftime.

It only got worse for the Colonels from there.

They misfired on their first 11 shots of the third quarter and finished just 1 of 14 from the field for two points in the period. (T.J. Bruce scored those when he put back an errant Chris Skinner jumper.)

That part was eerily similar to Friday night's game, when the Colonels carried a 10-point advantage into the break but went stone cold in the third quarter.

"I thought that we did a great job defensively, and I thought we were in great position to win this basketball game," Smith said. "But we just could not hit a shot at a critical moment of the game. ... That's really the story of the game. We were there and we just chose the wrong time to get cold."

After carrying a 23-22 lead into the fourth quarter, the Warriors outscored the Colonels 21-15 over the final eight minutes.

James Wood held its last lead 29-27 after a Potter floater with 5:16 remaining in the game, but Miller answered with a baseline jumper, sparking an 8-0 run that allowed Sherando to pull away for good.

Potter was the only Colonel in double figures, finishing with 10 points. Skinner added eight.

As a team, James Wood was 14 of 45 (33 percent) from the floor and just 5 of 12 (42 percent) from the line.

Sherando managed to shoot 24 percent (18 of 42) from the floor.

The end result was all too familiar for the Colonels, who lost three of the rivals' four meetings last season, including the district final and a regional quarterfinal.

"Same as last year," Smith said. "It is frustrating, but [our players] know that, through all we've been through this year, they've come through these last two or three weeks and played everybody extremely tough.

"I'm proud of these guys for where they were and where we wound up. ... I think we proved that we deserved to be in regionals."

Now it's Sherando that needs to reverse recent history.

The Warriors fell to Liberty in last year's regional semifinal and lost to the Eagles twice in this regular season (60-50 Dec. 4 at the Broadway tournament and 65-57 Jan. 21 in Bealeton).

"They've got real good guard play, and they had a pretty good post guy," Williams said, referring to 6-2 senior Andrew Mighty. "All I remember is his name was Mighty, and he was mighty against us."

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