Barons pull away from Mavericks to advance to title game

PETERSBURG -- After two grueling regular season battles -- one decided by a point, the other in double overtime -- Blue Ridge and Miller met for the third time on Friday night, this time with a state title on the line on the campus of Virginia State University.
On this night, it was Blue Ridge that took control in the fourth quarter to dethrone reigning VIS Division II state champ Miller in its first tournament since the move to Division I. The No. 3 seed Barons were on fire to start the contest and held off a third quarter rally from the No. 2 Mavericks (15-7) to pull away, 69-51, and advance to today’s final against No. 5 Bishop O’Connell, who knocked off the tourney’s top seed, Benedictine.
“Beating Miller and getting that rubber game in the match, that’s huge for us,” said Barons coach Bill Ramsey after the victory. “[Miller is] a great team, those guys play together and they’re hard to beat.”
Junior guard Malick Kone put on a dazzling shooting display, finishing with a game-high 25 points (11 for 15 from the floor) and a pair of steals to lead the Barons (21-5).
“They shot the ball really well to start, and we didn’t have any answer for them,” said Miller first-year coach Scott Willard. “Once we got back in it, I felt like our legs weren’t there.”
Blue Ridge’s Darnell Turner held his own against Memphis-bound Hippolyte Tsafack, as the senior forward added 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds that included some important second-chance putbacks. Four of his six fourth-quarter points came during a decisive 15-1 run that ultimately decided Friday’s semifinal showdown.
“We knew what to expect, we’ve played Miller numerous times, and we knew that we had to come out and play hard and rebound, keep up the intensity and get the win,” said Turner. “I’m used to playing against bigger guys and guys going to big programs, so it was a challenge, but I’m always ready for it.”
Prior to the game, Ramsey stressed the importance of winning the rebounding battle after losing the two close games to Miller.
“I said if we can get anywhere close in rebounds, they’re not going to beat us, we ought to be able to beat them by ten or so points,” Ramsey said.
When the afore mentioned run began, Blue Ridge had just witnessed its once double-digit third quarter lead evaporate to just two points, 46-44, after Miller senior guard D’Andre Corbin hit a momentum-changing 3-pointer from half court as time expired, part of a Mavericks 14-5 spurt to close out the frame.
The season series has seen its share of comebacks, and Friday’s tilt proved to be no different.
“I think everybody just dug down and decided that we weren’t going to lose,” Ramsey said. “I was worried how the first 10 minutes of the second half went, really, and that shot kind of epitomized that, but we weren’t playing and we weren’t making shots, we weren’t being aggressive. But I was real happy to see us bounce back and respond.”
The fourth quarter explosion began with seven straight Kone points, capped by a steal and coast-to-coast layup that stretched the advantage to eight with 5:37 remaining. Turner, who played almost the entire game with foul trouble, then hit his biggest two buckets of the night as part of 11 straight Barons points after Miller cut it to one a minute in.
Friday’s game marks the end of a memorable, brilliant career at Miller for seniors Tsafack, Corbin, Brice Kofane, Mychal Parker, Aleksander Turkovic, and Preston Terrell, who ended his high school career in fashion with a team-high 15 points. The group, along with current Arkansas star Marshawn Powell, won the state championship last season, and each member has played a key role in the team’s successful run over the past few years.
“It’s an incredible group, this particular group; three straight conference championships, Division II state title, Division I final four in our first year at that level,“ said Willard of the senior class’s numerous accomplishments. “We’re proud of our guys, our six seniors, and they’ve done amazing things at the Miller School. Today will be a tough pill to swallow, but I think that when they look at the body of work at Miller, they can really be proud.
“These are big-time players in the big-time arena, and they can take a down day like today and hopefully turn it into a positive, work harder in the off-season, and really prepare themselves for the next level. It’s fun as coaches to see them grow through the college years, and we’ll obviously be following all of our guys.”
Tsafack wanted so badly to win another state title as a way to thank the school after three years of success as a member of the Mavericks.
“It’s terrible,” Tsafack said after the loss. “To come back to one point, I don’t know what happened. This was the last time I wore the Miller School jersey, and I really wanted to get this one, but you win some and you lose some and we lost this year. I can accept that, but I don’t like to lose.”
Tsafack had 14 points and another double-digit rebounding performance in his Miller finale.
Parker got into some foul trouble of his own and was blanketed defensively down the stretch. As a result, last year’s tournament MVP failed to score in the second half and finished with eight points, well under his 20-point-plus average. The 6-foot-6 sharp-shooter will be a familiar face in the years to come for ACC fans, as he will play for Gary Williams at Maryland.
Kone, who is being looked at by Georgetown among others, developed his shooting touch growing up in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in West Africa, where all the games he played were held outdoors, meaning if it rained, you played in the rain. On Friday, a monsoon couldn’t have quieted Kone’s shooting display.
“I’m really happy about the win, but we still have one last game tomorrow,” Kone said. “We have to play it like our last game. I respect Bishop O’Connell, and it’s going to be a tough, tough game.”
Kameron Latouche and former Albemarle Patriot Cameron Anderson each finished with nine points for the Barons, who will tip off this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. against UNC-bound Kendall Marshall and the Knights from the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. Anderson also dished out a team-high five assists.
Ramsey knows that in order for Blue Ridge to capture the school’s fourth VIS Division I crown (and first since 2001), his team must avoid a late-game collapse like in last season’s title game, when the Barons couldn’t hold on to a large lead against eventual champ, Paul VI.
“Last year, we had a similar situation when we beat Benedictine in a big rivalry game in the semis, and then we didn’t show up to play the next day,” Ramsey said. “So we have to emphasize the fact that it’s only the semifinals, but I think everyone’s focused. We celebrated a little too much last year, but I think the guys have a real good mood going in, no question. I think we’re ready to show up.”
Turner added: “Hopefully this year we’ll come out with the same intensity that we did in this game, don’t let this game get to our heads, and come out with a victory.”