Mountaineers fall in Group A semis

RICHMOND — For Madison County coach Tim Taylor, there wasn’t anything particularly complex about it.

“We had 11 turnovers in three quarters and nine in the fourth,” Taylor said. “It’s that simple.”

Madison County’s fourth-quarter meltdown in a 57-54 loss to Dan River brought an unbeaten season and a march toward the state title game to a screeching halt Thursday night in the Group A, Division 2 semifinals.

It also allowed the Mountaineers to fall victim to an authoritative drive and lay-in by Dan River’s lone freshman, Trey Edmunds, with 18 seconds to play. That bucket lifted the Wildcats to the win after a failed Madison offensive possession and a pair of Dantony Dickerson free throws with two seconds to play put Dan River — a team Madison beat 56-48 in the Region B title game 13 days ago — up by three points.

“I saw they had two or three men on Darren [White] trying to lock down on him,” Edmunds said. “So I felt like it was an open enough floor for me to go down.”

Madison did a solid job against White, a James Madison-bound senior who averages nearly 19 points per game. White finished with just eight points and three rebounds on just 3-for-14 shooting, but he said after the game he was sick and didn’t feel well at all coming into the contest.

Dickerson, a 5-foot-9 senior who usually starts but came off the bench deliberately as a sparkplug, made up for White’s struggles by burying four 3-pointers — the only four in the contest by either team. Dickerson went 4 for 8 from behind the arc while Madison went 0 for 9.

It was Madison’s offensive self-destruction in the fourth though that was the Mountaineers’ undoing. While they matched the Wildcats shot for shot down the stretch until the closing seconds, they missed a series of chances to take control by committing the nine late turnovers. The mistakes also opened the door for Dan River by creating a number of extra possessions.

“We could never get into a rhythm all day,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to make passes to places we shouldn’t be when we could take it out and let the time run off.”

Edmunds, who logged 10 points and four assists, drove nearly the length of the court and knocked down the contested lay-in, the final aggressive move to the basket in a game dominated by Dan River attacking the lane. Edmunds and Reggie Stone, the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 16, put the ball on the floor early and often, particularly during the second half when Dan River sliced into Madison’s nine-point halftime advantage.

“They went to the four guards and they were just attacking the rim,” Taylor said. “We did not rotate and help … it was just pass and attack. It was mano a mano and they beat us this time.”

Logan Terrell led the Mountaineers with 18 points and nine rebounds, adjusting well to an early series of blocked shots by Dan River. The junior settled in late in the first and into the second quarter when Madison made a 14-0 run that gave them an 18-8 lead in the early stages of the second.

“I guess I was just a little jumpy, but as the game went on I just started pump faking,” Terrell said.

Terrell couldn’t make up for his frontcourt mate David Falk’s foul trouble though. Falk picked up his fourth personal foul with 7:45 to play in the final frame, and it’s little coincidence that Dan River ripped off an 8-0 run immediately after the 6-foot-5 junior left the game.

Jerel Carter finished with 14 points, four assists and three steals while Sam Utz had six points and seven boards. Madison held a 36-31 advantage on the glass.

During the closing stages, Dan River also came up with eight steals and a number of critical loose balls during the fourth. In the Region B tournament title game clash, a majority of those battles went to Madison.

“I felt like the last game they got all the hustle points,” said Dan River coach Jacob Gruse. “That’s one of the focal points we put on the board and I thought early we didn’t but down the stretch we really did.”

Madison was strong at the free-throw line — the Mountaineers went 24 of 27 at the stripe, including Terrell’s 10-for-10 night, a performance that kept Madison in the game — but it came as little consolation to a team whose season was completely derailed.

“I think we appreciate the great year, but I don’t think we’ll ever get over the pain of this one — you never do,” Taylor said. “I don’t know if we’d say failure, but we definitely didn’t accomplish what we set out to do. It’s definitely not a failure but we just didn’t reach the goals that we had set. We had one goal in mind.”