WINCHESTER — It was a tale of two halves in Casey Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
With the Millbrook and James Wood High School boys’ basketball teams trading blows in the first two quarters, the cross-county rivalry game looked like it was going to come down to the eleventh hour. That was until the Pioneers ran away with it in the second half, ultimately defeating the Colonels 78-66.
After a back-and-forth first half that saw the lead change hands several times, Millbrook ended up outscoring the Colonels 40-29 in the second half to come away with a Class 4 Northwestern District victory.
Millbrook coach Erick Green Sr. said his team “just needed to be motivated at halftime” after not playing up to its standard in the opening two quarters.
“[I was just] reminding them about the rivalry, reminding them about the pride in the school,” Green said. “And just executing. I mean, we were making soft passes. We really weren’t applying the pressure that we’re capable of applying. We really weren’t doing what we know we’re capable of. I just reminded them of that, and they got the message.”
The Pioneers ended the first half on a good note, with Dre Bailey drilling a 3-pointer from the left corner as time expired to give Millbrook a 38-37 lead at the break. That positive momentum only snowballed to begin the third quarter, as Millbrook (6-5, 2-0 Class 4 Northwestern District) came out of the locker room on a 12-0 run to take a 13-point lead with 4:34 left in the third.
Shawn Rooks and Kyle Arthur led the way in the third, with Arthur scoring seven points in the 12-0 run.
After scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first quarter, Rooks scored seven more points in the third, four of which came at the free-throw line. Three of his points came off a shot from behind the arc, which gave the Pioneers a 46-37 lead with 6:25 left in the third. Rooks finished with a game-high 22 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
“He got some easy buckets and got some good looks around the rim, and they fell for him,” Green said. “And then he knocked down some deep shots, [and] I knew he was in a rhythm then. It was just a matter of him just taking good shots and getting good looks.”
From that point forward, the Pioneers remained in control of the game against the Colonels (5-5, 1-2), who played their first game since Dec. 28. Millbrook, on the other hand, was playing its third game in three days. The Pioneers lost to Meridian 75-57 on Monday and defeated Liberty 75-44 on Tuesday.
“We took a lot of shots that were forced shots,” Green said. “They [weren’t] good shots, and they [weren’t] falling, but they kept shooting. And then they realized what they needed to do, and that was attack the basket. We went on that run. It was big, and I think that took the wind out of James Wood.”
Rooks said he knew the Pioneers could push the ball better in the second half.
“The message [at halftime] was we just got to go, [and] we just got to attack more,” Rooks said.
Part of that attack was putting pressure on Wood’s ball handlers. The 12-0 run to begin the third was sparked by Millbrook forcing four turnovers. Even when Wood was able to get shots off, it struggled to convert, as the Colonels ended up making just 3 of 13 shots in the third.
“One of the things that we know that they like to do is feed the post,” Green said. “We felt like we could put pressure on the guards to make it difficult for them to feed the post.”
Millbrook had 11 different players find the bottom of the net. Along with Rooks’ 22 points, Arthur finished with 12. Rylee Baker also had 11 points, five assists and five steals. Bailey had nine points, six assists and four steals.
As a team, the Pioneers shot 50.9 percent from the floor and converted on 10 of 19 attempts from the 3-point line.
James Wood coach Ben Bates thought the 12-0 run by Millbrook was a huge difference-maker.
“We just don’t have the firepower right now to sustain runs,” Bates said. “If and when teams go on those runs, we need some leadership to step in, and, hopefully, we can get some of those stops as we move forward. But I’m not fully disappointed. Of course, you want to win every game, especially against your cross-town rival, but I’m pleased with how we competed.”
Wood was able to cut the Pioneers’ lead to single digits after Brodie Sirbaugh hit a 3-pointer with 2:35 left in the third to bring the deficit to 53-44.
Millbrook then responded with a 14-7 run to end the third and begin the fourth to take a 67-51 lead with less than seven minutes to play.
Sirbaugh finished with 16 points. Ronnie Barrett was right behind him with 15 points.
“As a coaching staff, we need to evaluate some things, especially some of the personnel that I’m putting on the floor,” Bates said. “I need to do a better job of putting guys in a place to be successful.”
Playing their first game in nearly three weeks, Bates had a feeling the time off would be evident Wednesday night.
“We lost practice Saturday; that was a late cancellation,” Bates said. “We didn’t have the best practice coming back Monday or [Tuesday] night, which was kind of expected from being gone so long. But like I told the guys, focus on this one until midnight, and then hopefully at 12:01 [a.m.], we’re on to get better.”
Wednesday’s game started off sloppy, with both teams combining for seven turnovers in the first 48 seconds of action.
That slow start didn’t last long, as the teams went back and forth the rest of the first half.
Wood started out with a 13-11 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter before Millbrook’s Samuel Martey stole the ball and delivered a fast-break layup to tie the game. Millbrook then went on an 8-7 run capped off by a 3-pointer from Rooks — his third of the quarter — to give the Pioneers a 21-18 lead after the first.
With the help of seven points from Barrett in the second quarter, the Colonels kept up with the Pioneers in the first half before Millbrook ultimately pulled away after the break.
Millbrook will travel to Sherando, and Wood will host Warren County on Friday.
— Contact Justin Robertson at jrobertson@winchesterstar.com
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