MC in state action Saturday

Madison County’s boys basketball team last week completely focused on getting to the place it had set out to get to at the beginning of the year: the VHSL State Championship Tournament. The Mountaineers were assured they will reach that destination with their 65-58 home win Friday against Buckingham County. Going all the way back to last season, the Knights were the last team to beat Madison, but this year, the Mountaineers had their number.

Madison also beat George Mason in the quarter-final rounds 59-44. Both of those games gave Madison the chance to play in the finals match against Dan River at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg Saturday. Though Dan River played tough, Madison won the Region B, Division 2 final and captured the Region B championship with the 56-48 win over the Wildcats.

The Wildcats gave Madison arguably the best game of the year as the lead was traded back and forth all game long until Madison finally got separation in the fourth quarter, eventually getting the 56-48 win.

Darren White, a James Madison University recruit for next year, who had been averaging around 19.5 points per game this season, was limited to 5 by the Mountaineer defense. The defensive effort came with a big help from David Falk, who had 15 points and 18 rebounds. Logan Terrell and Sam Utz both made noise for the Mountaineers as they each racked up 12.

The importance of that game however was overruled by the importance of the game the night before against Buckingham. The community knew of the importance as well and showed up in droves to the gym, so many in fact that it prompted multiple announcements by the fire marshal threatening to close the gym if fans didn’t vacate the aisles. Buckingham brought a cheering section from their county as well, which only added to all of the emotion in the gym.

At the end of the game, it was Madison which claimed a 65-58 victory, thus guaranteeing a state tourney spot. Terrell had his second game in a row with 20 or more points as he hit exactly 20 in the game. He also ripped down 12 rebounds. Falk and Carter each had 11 as well.

The Knights’ D.J. Jones couldn’t be stopped by Madison all night long as he had 31 of the Knights’ 58 points.

“You saw him scoring. There wasn’t anything stopping him all night long,” said Madison Coach Tim Taylor. “We just forced some turnovers up top but we didn’t stop him.

“Coach [Ben] Breeden made a great suggestion to put in Andre [Parker] and A.J. [Butler] and we went with a little quicker line-up and started getting some pressure on them and they started turning the ball over and we were able to make a great run and with these fans here behind those guys, I think they got rattled a bit,” Taylor said.

Madison also got the first round win against George Mason, whom Big Blue had seen twice this season already by the score 59-44. Terrell had 23 points in the match-up adding yet another game where he had double-digit numbers.

Madison now will play Saturday in the quarter-final match-up against Northampton, a team from Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The March 7 game will be at Monticello High School in Charlottesville. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. (An incorrect tip-off time was previously reported.)

Madison, still undefeated, now has an overall 27-0 record on the season.