Blue Ridge draws first blood

In a highly-anticipated matchup between two of central Virginia’s top teams, Round 1 went to Blue Ridge.
But the win over the Miller School didn’t come easily. In fact, the Mavericks outrebounded the Barons and outscored the visitors in the second half as they cut a double-digit deficit to two points.
However, Blue Ridge clamped down on the defensive end down the stretch to prevail 58-54.
“This is our first year in the Virginia Independent Conference and Miller is a great team — they’ve won it a bunch of times,” said Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey, whose team is ranked No. 1 in the latest Division I poll. “So to be able to come in here and get a win on their court is big — it kinda puts the pressure on them now.”
The Mavericks, who trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half, used an 8-2 spurt to open the fourth quarter and climb back into it.
Miller was able to chip away at the Barons’ lead with numerous offensive putbacks and its solid perimeter play.
“We fought hard. We really need to scrap right now to find ways to score,” said Miller coach Fred Wawner. “One of them is to offensive rebound — especially if we’re not going to make offensive shots, we’re going to have to go get it.”
With 4:45 to play, Jesse Shannon got the rebound and the stickback after a missed free-throw by Brice Kofane to cut Blue Ridge’s lead to three, 54-51.
But the score stayed that way until 55 seconds were left in the contest as both teams played well defensively.
After turning the ball over, the Mavericks were forced to foul, and put Denzel Wilson on the line. The senior guard calmly converted a pair of free throws to extend the Barons’ lead to 56-51. But Preston Terrell drained his second 3-pointer of the quarter on the ensuing Miller possession to trim the lead to two points with 42 seconds left.
The Mavericks were called for goaltending on the other end and were unable to get another good look at the basket as Blue Ridge hung on for the win.
“We got very tentative in the fourth quarter and that was another key of letting them back in the game — we stopped attacking, and that was not what I was telling them do to,” Ramsey said. “I was telling them, ‘you’ve got to keep going at them, you can’t let up, they’re going to make shots.”
Both teams were missing key players — Miller was without one of their leading scorers, Marshawn Powell (personal issues) — and Blue Ridge senior forward Kristijan Krajina sat out with a knee sprain.
But Miller (9-3, 1-1) got a big-time performance from Mychal Parker, who poured in a game-high 23 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals. Hippolyte Tsafack also had a productive outing, contributing 12 points and pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds.
Blue Ridge closed the first half with a 9-0 run and held a comfortable 38-25 lead at halftime. During that stretch, the Barons were able to force the Mavericks into mistakes and in turn, score easy baskets in transition. Wilson scored seven of his team-high 15 points during that stretch. 
“They’re so quick and athletic across the front line that a real key for us was to get steals and get transition baskets,” Ramsey said.
“We have a lot of speed in the backcourt, and that run really won the game for us. We just had to hold on from there.”