Charlottesville wins battle of Knights

Up by 27 points in the third quarter, Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor decided to give some of his starters a rest.

About that time, Buckingham County woke up and quickly turned a walkover into a nailbiter.

“We were trying to get other kids an opportunity to play,” Minor said. “But there’s really just no excuse for the way we played in the fourth quarter.”

Buckingham’s rally fell short, though, because of Kevin Leatherwood’s late-game heroics, and Charlottesville escaped with a 65-61 victory to claim third place in The Daily Progress NBC29 Holiday Classic.

After Buckingham tied the game at 61-61 with 18 seconds left on a steal and bucket by Curtis Jones, Leatherwood went to work, drawing a foul in the backcourt. The senior buried his two free throws, then stole the ball from a Buckingham player on the ensuing inbounds and drew another foul with 12 seconds left, making both free throws to give the Black Knights a four-point margin. Leatherwood finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, leading Charlottesville on the boards.

Buckingham missed a pair of desperation shots to end the contest, coming up short on the rally. The Knights managed to hold Charlottesville to just eight points in the fourth quarter.

“We had every reason to hang our head because nothing was going our way, but I don’t have any quit in me and hopefully it trickles down to them,” said Buckingham coach Brian Wilson.

The Knights woke up late in the third quarter after Wilson got tagged with a technical foul, and the animated coach still managed to fire up the Knights’ bench despite being confined to his chair after the technical.

“I don’t know what it takes to get them to play with that kind of fire the entire game,” Wilson said. “I hope it doesn’t take me getting techs because I’m not going to do that every game.”

D.J. Jones came on late to help Buckingham claw its way back into things, burying a critical 3-pointer as time expired in the third quarter that pulled the Knights within 20. The shot seemed to give the Knights a lot of momentum early in the fourth, and Buckingham went on a 9-2 run to slice even further into the lead.

“We weren’t supposed to leave him at all, but one time he shot from four feet behind the line, and I said, ‘Don’t even give him that,’” Minor said. “I told them to deny them the ball altogether. They made a good run there at the end though.”

Jones led all scorers with 25 points, including a trio of 3-pointers.

It was far from Charlottesville’s best effort this season, as the Black Knights built their big lead in spite of some erratic play. There were a number of unforced turnovers and Charlottesville struggled to find an actual sustained flow on offense, particularly in the first quarter.

“I thought we played pretty sloppy,” Minor said. “And after that we really got complacent, and no matter what I said or did we never got back into a rhythm.”

Maurice Jackson was the only steady hand in the first half, when he scored a big chunk of his 23 points. Still, the points kept coming and Buckingham kept falling further and further behind until Charlottesville’s meltdown in the fourth.

Buckingham’s worst quarter came in the second, when Charlottesville extended its lead to 18 when the Knights managed just four points in the third frame. Taylor Boyers pulled down 13 rebounds and poured in 16 points in the loss.