Amelia County holds off Buckingham boys hoops team

DILLWYN — In a hard-fought James River District battle, Buckingham's boys basketball team could not finish off first-place Amelia County, as the visiting Raiders held on and remained unbeaten in league play with a 69-59 road victory on Thursday night.

Amelia guard Dante Bournes was essentially a one-man wrecking crew, finishing with a game-high 28 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. He got help from Tre’von Garland, who scored nine of his 16 in the final period. The pair combined to knock down 10 of their 12 free-throw attempts over the last 5:33 of the contest, as the Raiders closed the game on an 8-2 run.

“We shot poorly in all three losses this year, and in our 16 wins, we’ve played well,” BCHS coach Russ Gowin said. “Things have fallen into place for us all season, and I’m just real pleased. We’re disappointed tonight, but that's part of it... If you had told me at the beginning of the season that we were going to be 17-3, I would have laughed at you and anybody else. Our kids have put it together.”

Senior guard Tarian Ayers rallied his team after an early deficit and kept the Knights in it with a team-high 21-point, 15-rebound performance despite having to sit with foul trouble through key stretches.

Ayers had eight points and 10 boards by halftime, and the Raiders (16-2, 13-0 JRD) went on an 8-3 spurt to close the first half with a 29-22 lead after a closely contested 16 minutes.

“We had some shots that were close all night long, and we missed some easy shots,” said Gowin. “We’d been hitting them over this win streak for us, those shots were going in, but tonight just the ball rolled around and just didn’t go in there. But our kids hung in there and battled back.”

Amelia’s Jahmel Johnson was a force down low early on, but was whistled for his third personal foul just before the break. The big man picked up his fourth less than two minutes into the third quarter, right in the middle of a 10-3 Knights run — capped by a Camre Johnson three-point play — to tie the game at 32-32.

A few minutes later, Ayers got three the hard way himself to give Buckingham its first lead since early in the second quarter, 38-37. A Garland 3-pointer put Amelia back in front, 44-42, with 35 seconds left in the third, but Ayers recorded another and-one on the ensuing possession to give his team a one-point lead heading into the fourth. The Knights scored more in the third (23) than they did the entire first half.

“I was proud of our kids for coming back and taking the lead,” said Gowin, “but it just kind of looked like we lost our legs in the fourth, and [Amelia] hit their free throws down the stretch, and they just made plays. Amelia is 13-0 in the district for a reason. They’re a great basketball team, they’re an exceptional defensive team, and that’s how they’ve won the majority of their games is their defense, and the Bournes kid, he played fantastic tonight.”

Ayers did a good job of avoiding picking up his fourth personal in the third, but committed an offensive foul with 6:45 to go and had to sit. Jahmel Johnson returned and scored his first points of the second half with 4:22 left to give the Raiders a 55-48 advantage. Ayers was re-inserted less than a minute later for one final push, and hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four with just over two minutes left, but the comeback hopes would be put to rest at the charity stripe by Bournes and Garland. Like in the meeting at Amelia earlier in the season, the Knights (16-3, 10-3) could not hold onto a second-half lead to put the Raiders away. Ayers feels that he plays on the best team in the league.

“I give [the Raiders] credit, they’re a good team,” admitted Ayers, “but I really feel like we’re a better team. We let down ourselves on defense today, and on top of that we ended up finishing the game with 18 turnovers. That's almost unheard of, you can't win a game with that many turnovers, we just need to cut that down and step up on defense.”

Jahmel Johnson finished the game with 14 points for Amelia, who made 13 of 16 fourth-quarter free throws to seal the 10-point win. The Raiders will try to wrap up a perfect regular season in league play as they host Goochland this evening.

Buckingham junior Tariq Bartee added 12 points and six rebounds in the losing effort, while sophomore center Drequan Scott chipped in with eight points and seven boards, and Johnson finished with seven points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Senior L.A. Briley dished out eight assists. He, Ayers and fellow seniors LaySean Hearns and Derrick Stanton will play their final regular-season home game tonight against Bluestone (7:30 p.m. tipoff) before preparing for the JRD quarterfinals next Monday.

“We’ve got to come out as a team and set the level high for the district tournament,” said Ayers, whose team had already locked up the No. 2 seed before Thursday’s game. “Hopefully we can take it over.”