Dragons handle Flucos

After squaring off four times this season, the Fluvanna County and William Monroe girls basketball teams are quite familiar with each other.

And the Greene Dragons have found a formula for success against the Flying Flucos.

William Monroe clamped down on the defensive end and let its offense do the rest in a 59-44 victory in the semifinals of the Jefferson District tournament on Wednesday night.

The win marked the third straight against Fluvanna, as the Dragons also swept the Flucos during the regular season.

“There were no surprises tonight — it was just going to be a matter of who was able to execute offensively the longest and defensively the longest,” William Monroe coach Philip Lamb said. “Fluvanna played great — they gave us more than we wanted. We are fortunate to walk out of here with a win tonight.

“At halftime, we talked about getting defensive stops. I didn’t want to get into a game and try and outscore somebody. In the second half, we were fortunate that we made a few more stops than we did in the first half.”

William Monroe (18-5) advances to the JD tournament final for the first time and will play Charlottesville on Friday.

The teams battled back and forth throughout the first half, with neither team getting much of an advantage over the other. In fact, there were seven ties and five lead changes in the first 16 minutes.

Fluvanna used a stingy zone defense to limit William Monroe to five second-quarter points, and held a 25-22 lead at halftime.

But the Dragons, the regular-season district champions, capitalized on sloppy play by the Flucos and got a few timely baskets in the third quarter. Monroe ended the quarter with a 9-0 spurt, gaining the lead (38-33) and the momentum.

Melanie Lamb, who was selected as the district’s top player, jump-started the run with a 3-pointer.

William Monroe was also able to get several steals, then a couple of quick baskets in transition from reserve guard Alex Cave (seven points) to extend the lead.

“When Lamb hit the 3-pointer in the corner, she cut a four-point lead to one,” Fluvanna County coach Chad White said. “All of a sudden, we pretty much lost our composure and we started doing things that we didn’t do in the first half.”

The Dragons carried that intensity into the fourth quarter and never looked back. They outscored the Flucos 37-19 in the second half.

“We do talk about closing out quarters,” Lamb said. “You don’t just want to win a quarter — you want to want to go out with a little momentum and that [run] was a huge point in the game.”

K-anna and Mia Loyd combined for 29 of the Fluvanna’s 44 points. K-anna finished with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Mia added 14 points and 10 boards.

Lamb paced Monroe with 17 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter. Leah Krynitsky contributed 13 points and was a force in the paint with seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. Bethany Leake chipped in with eight points.

William Monroe had already secured a Region II berth, and Fluvanna County still has a shot to make the playoffs.

The Dragons will host a first-round game next Tuesday. Interestingly, there is a good chance their opponent will be the Flucos.