Barons pick up big win

ST. GEORGE — Just before tipping off against Atlantic Shores Christian, Blue Ridge basketball coach Bill Ramsey overheard scouts in the crowd saying the Barons, even as the host, had no chance.

“People were talking about how this game was going to be Atlantic Shores’, because Blue Ridge hadn’t jelled yet, and have too many new guys,” Ramsey said.

The talk was just that as the Barons handed the Seahawks their first loss, 69-55.

“This sends a message around the state that we’ve made a lot of progress from the two overtime games against STAB and Flint Hill,” Ramsey said. “Everybody knows that we’ve got the talent. Now they know that we’re starting to play together.”

Blue Ridge outplayed Atlantic Shores in every aspect of the game for the first three quarters and was able to build up a 12-point lead in the process.

But Atlantic Shores decided to make it a game in the fourth quarter by going on an 11-0 run to cut the Barons’ lead to one with 6:30 remaining.

“We dug in and showed some defensive heart,” said Seahawks coach Bruce Foster, “and we started to score in transition.”

Ramsey called a timeout to seize the momentum, and it worked. Coming out of the break, Barons guards Ryan Smith and Denzel Wilson put together three fast breaks to put Blue Ridge in front for good.

“They missed a couple of shots and Ryan and I, with our speed, we just tried to run the court and make the open passes,” Wilson said.

Over the final 5 minutes, the Barons outscored the Seahawks by a 2-to-1 margin.

“It was a great win,” Wilson said. “A very big win for the school.”

Scott Williams put forth an outstanding effort on both ends of the court. Williams led all scorers with 22 points, but he was also a major factor on defense.

Coming into the game the Barons (5-1) knew they had to keep Atlantic Shores’ two big names from going off.

“Coach told us that if we stopped Andre Dawkins and Steven Pledge we’d win the game,” Williams said. “We had to show up.”

Williams and teammate Kristijan Krajina held Pledge, who is Oklahoma-bound, and Dawkins, a Duke commit, to 39 points between them.

“It’s fun playing against a Division I player,” Williams said. “I got my hand in his face, got in his head a bit. That’s basically all I did,  have heart and play up on him.”

Ramsey knew that Williams was capable of defending Division I talent, but excited to find out that Krajina was up to the task as well.

“You can’t under estimate the job Krajina did,” Ramsey said. “As a 6-foot, 9-inch forward he had to prove that he could guard the perimeter. I had no doubt in my mind that he could. I just needed him to have no doubt in his mind that he could. That’s the kind of thing that Andrey Semenov was able to do for us last year.”

The Seahawks (5-1) only had five players score. Pledge and Dawkins aside, the other three put together 16 points.

“We did some dumb things offensively,” Foster said. “I think Blue Ridge’s defense was phenomenal. But also I think we contributed to our own downfall by putting the ball on the floor too much and settling too quickly for jump shots. It looked like we had a shot clock on us.”