Mountaineers hang on for win

MADISON — Madison County survived its biggest scare of the season Friday night against a potent Buckingham County team in the Region B, Division 2 semifinals.

The Mountaineers, who trailed for most of the game, finally secured the lead late in the fourth quarter thanks to some critical adjustments on the defensive end and hit their free throws down the stretch to hang on for a 65-58 win.

With the win, Madison stays unbeaten on the season and will face Dan River in the region championship game tonight at Eastern Mennonite University. More importantly, the Mountaineers secured a spot in the Group A, Division 2 tournament.

“Buckingham absolutely shot the lights out of it. They were well-coached and well-prepared. I just thought our defensive pressure got them in the fourth quarter,” Madison coach Tim Taylor said. “I’m going to give credit to my assistant coach Ben Breeden, who said, ‘Why don’t we put in A.J. Butler and Andre Parker?’ And when we did that, it picked the tempo up, and we started getting pressure. That was the difference in the game.”

The Knights, the James River District champions, led by as many as nine points in the second half before Madison began its furious fourth-quarter rally in front of a sellout home crowd.

In fact, the Mountaineers took their first lead of the half with 3:34 to play as Logan Terrell took a nifty feed from Jerel Carter for a basket underneath.

However, the lead was short-lived as Buckingham’s Kadeem Harris answered with a 3-pointer.

Madison (26-0) regained the lead for good with another bucket in the paint from Terrell, on an assist from Carter. Terrell was fouled on the play and converted the three-point play to give the home team a 53-52 advantage. Terrell paced the Bull Run District champions with 22 points.

The Mountaineers continued to work the ball inside as Sam Utz found Terrell underneath for another quick basket on the team’s following possession. Utz (16 points) then dove on the floor for the ball, got the steal and flipped it to Carter, who finished the fast break play with a pretty two-handed dunk.

Carter, the Bull Run District player of the year, finished with 11 points and came up with big plays in the final minutes. He was forced to switch jerseys midway through the fourth quarter because he got blood on his jersey after taking a hit to the face.

“When he hit his nose, he came in and said, ‘You’re mad, aren’t you?’ He said, ‘Yes, sir.’ I said, ‘You’re going to take this over, aren’t you,’ and he said, ‘Yes sir,’” Taylor said. “And I think he did — he did a lot of the little things. And Sam Utz came up big, diving on the floor and kicking it to Jerel for the dunk — that was a huge play in the game.”

But Buckingham didn’t go down quietly, as D.J. Jones hit his seventh 3-pointer of the game — with two defenders in his face — to pull the visitors within three with 35 seconds remaining. Jones gave the Madison defense fits all night, pouring in a game-high 31 points.

The Mountaineers hung on thanks to solid free-throw shooting — the team went 8 for 10 from the foul line in the final 56 seconds to secure the win.

“D.J. Jones is a great player. I give him all the props. He came out and did his thing tonight and we couldn’t do anything to stop him,” Carter said. “He’s a great player and he’s going to have nights like that. We’re just glad we came out of here with the ‘W’.”