Patriots stomp Giants

Albemarle has had trouble scoring during the initial stages of games this season at times.

An early full-court press against Waynesboro solved that problem — for at least one night.

The Patriots (5-4) pressed the Little Giants (1-5) into submission, racking up 10 steals as a team in an 81-32 walkover in the first round of The Daily Progress NBC29 Holiday Classic.

“We’ve been struggling to score,” said Albemarle coach Greg Maynard. “We tried to put a lot of pressure on them and create offense with our defense, and then we started to shoot the ball well.”

Albemarle buried 10 3-pointers, including three each from Adam Utz and Andrew Frazier. Dalton Stokes also had a pair of long balls.

Albemarle leapt out to an 11-0 lead and extended that margin to 22-5 by the end of the first quarter. Waynesboro failed to throw a counterpunch and trailed by 25 at the break.

A pair of Patriots fell just short of double-doubles, with Utz clocking in with eight assists and 15 points while Jake Hendrix pulled down 10 rebounds and scored nine points. Utz did his damage in limited minutes as the Patriots’ starters sat for long stretches with the Little Giants out of it early.

“[Utz] shot the ball well, but his passing really shined tonight,” Maynard said. “He really distributed the ball well.”

Two of those assists came on back-to-back dunks by Cameron Anderson and Andre Roberts in the second half. Anderson’s slam came on a monster alley-oop.

Waynesboro, on the other hand, had trouble with the Albemarle pressure and committed a number of unforced turnovers on the offensive end. The Little Giants also struggled to get out on Albemarle’s shooters while staying in a zone for long stretches, a necessary strategy with the 6-foot-6 Anderson and Hendrix patrolling the paint for the Patriots.

“That first quarter they played pretty well and we looked like we’d never had practice,” said Waynesboro coach C. Jay DeWitt. “We don’t have much size and when they did miss them, we didn’t get any rebounds.”

According to DeWitt, Albemarle was the Little Giants’ biggest test so far. Waynesboro appeared to be overmatched personnel-wise, and the Patriots did a good job of taking advantage. When Waynesboro collapsed inside, Albemarle would quickly kick it back out and the Patriots also moved the ball quickly around the perimeter, which created a number of open outside shots.

Sam Richerson and Jordan Ross paced the Little Giants with eight points each.