TMS: Jefferson District repeats, Orange matchups highlight Reg. II quarterfinals

With the newly-expanded region playoff format, eight local teams will represent the Jefferson District in the Region II basketball tournament, which begins today.
Four boys team and four girls teams will participate in the tournament, which is divided into Division 3 and Division 4 this year — and four of those squads will face off against each other for the right to move on.
In the boys Division 4 bracket, Charlottesville, the Jefferson District regular-season champion, earned a first-round bye and will host the winner of the Loudoun County-Park View game on Thursday.
Orange County secured the No. 3 seed after going on a run the past few games and capturing the tournament title. The Hornets play host to Potomac Falls in the quarterfinals.
In the boys Division 3 bracket, Western Albemarle, which finished as the runner-up in the regular season earned a No. 3 seed. The Warriors will host William Monroe — a team that made a big late-season push — in the quarterfinals. It’ll be the fourth battle between the two squads — Western took the latest tilt, a 67-59 win in the Jefferson semifinals.
On the girls side in Division 4, Charlottesville, the district tournament champions, earned a first-round bye. Orange County, a No. 6 seed, travels to No. 3 seed Brentsville for a quarterfinal matchup Tuesday.
In the Division 3 bracket, William Monroe, the regular-season district champion, plays host to Fluvanna County in the quarterfinals. This will be the fifth meeting this season between the two schools. The winner will face Freedom, the Dulles District winner, on the road Thursday in the semifinals.
In the Group A, Region B tournament, unbeaten and top-seeded Madison County will play host to George Mason on Wednesday at
7 p.m. The Mountaineers knocked off Clarke County to win the Bull Run District tournament last week.
Buckingham County, which advanced to last year’s Group A tournament, earned the No. 4 seed in Division 2, and plays host to No. 5 Appomattox on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Knights topped Cumberland Saturday night to claim the James River District crown.
Hornets hit their stride, win Jefferson title
Orange County’s boys basketball team has gone on a tear the past couple of weeks, winning four straight, including the Jefferson District tournament title on Friday night.
During the run, D.J. Brown has been a force for the Hornets, and Tyler Seal, Robert McBrayer, Mike Nixon and Spencer Jarrell have all filled their roles admirably.
But Quintin Hunter has shined, taking his game to new heights each step along the way. In fact, Hunter’s free throw with seconds to play in Friday’s championship game effectively sealed the win for Orange.
Hunter, who is headed to the University of Virginia to play football, averaged 18.6 points over three tournament games.
According to Orange coach Keyode Rogers, Hunter is invaluable on the court.
“Words don’t express how much he means to this team — you can’t say enough about him,” Rogers said following the team’s semifinal win over Charlottesville. “Night in and night out he’s playing hard but he’s also playing like he’s got something to prove, and that’s a good thing, when you play like that and when you play under control. And he’s doing a good job of it.”
CHS does it again
There’s no doubt that experience paid off for the Charlottesville girls basketball team in the Jefferson District tournament championship game on Friday night.
The Black Knights, who advanced to last year’s state tournament and have been in every tournament final since the Jefferson District was formed, dispatched top-seeded William Monroe
47-37 to claim the crown this past Friday.
According to veteran coach Harry Terrell, this group is just the latest who are trying to keep the program’s tradition going strong.
“I tell [the players], ‘Many before you have been here,’” Terrell said following his team’s win on Friday. “And they’ve always managed to do the right thing to get the job done. And I say, ‘You have the same opportunity to do that, so make them proud of you by doing just that.’”
Charlottesville combined a stingy defense with a spirited performance from senior leader Shawntae Payne to earn the win.
Payne helped fuel the Black Knights with a game-high 15 points, including eight in the second half to help her team pull away. Tanyqua Williams got the job done in the paint, recording a double-double
(11 points, 12 rebounds), while Olivia Levine had one of her best games of the season, adding eight points and 11 rebounds.
“They are seniors, and at this stage in the game, seniors need to step up,” Terrell said of Payne and Williams. “Olivia, for a sophomore, she’s the type of player who’s going to go all out. I thought she did a real good job playing with her ability and keeping her composure.”
Charlottesville secured the No. 1 seed in the Region II, Division 4 tournament, and will host the Broad Run-James Wood winner in the semifinals on Thursday at
7 p.m.
Dragons hope to bounce back from JD loss
Playing in its first Jefferson District tournament title game, the William Monroe girls basketball team came up short as Charlottesville put together a strong second half to come away with the win.
And maybe things could have turned out differently if Melanie Lamb, the Greene Dragons’ floor leader and Jefferson District player of the year, had been at full strength. An ailing Lamb was held well below her season average, finishing with three points.
“She was very much under the weather,” William Monroe coach Philip Lamb said. “Had this not been such a special game, I probably would have sat her tonight. She gave it a go, and gave it everything she could.”
The coach said that his team, which won its first regular-season JD title and secured the program’s first 18-win season since moving to Group AA, had nothing to hang their heads about following the loss.
“I told this team, one game doesn’t define who we are,” he added. “Whether we won or lost, that doesn’t make us who we are. The girls have worked so hard all year and I’m so proud of everything they’ve
accomplished.”
The Dragons will face a team they are very familiar with in today’s region quarterfinals — Fluvanna County. William Monroe knocked off the Flucos in the district semifinals and swept them during the regular season as well. Fluvanna got the best of the Dragons in the first meeting at a winter break tournament.
Black Knights regroup, move on
Charlottesville, the regular-season district champions, will have had plenty of time to get ready for its Region II, Division 4 game this Thursday. The Black Knights were bounced out of the district tournament by Orange County in the semifinals.
In that game, Kevin Leatherwood shouldered much of the load with a team-high 23 points. Omari Minor added 17, all of which came in the second half. But they didn’t have much help and the Black Knights didn’t have much depth with suspended starters Terrence Briggs and James Thompson on the bench.
“It’s no question [it hurt us] — you’re missing two of your best rebounders and it’s kind of hard to get back into the rhythm not having two starters,” Charlottesville coach Mitch Minor said. “Especially one that scores over 10 points a game and gets six rebounds a game and James, who gets five rebounds a game — that hurt us a lot. Plus the speed that they bring as well.”
Briggs and Thompson will be ready to play Thursday, when Charlottesville hosts its region semifinal game against the winner of the Loudoun County-Park View quarterfinal. According to Minor, his team will need to work on rebounding and being more patient on offense if it wants to advance to the finals.
“One good thing about winning the district is that you have the opportunity to get to the region no matter what,” Minor said. “We’ll have to regroup from this one and get ready and get focused because there’s no second chances.”