After three quarters of virtually even play from both sides, Warhill’s boys basketball team used clutch rebounding and shut-down defense in the final minutes to grab a 64-57 win over Jamestown on Wednesday night.
Lions guard Devonte Dedmon was dominant all night, finishing with 25 points and numerous assists while leading a Warhill fast break that Jamestown head coach Lee Underwood admitted his Eagles couldn’t hang with.
“Our plan was to keep him in front of us,” Underwood said after the game, “because once he gets in transition nobody can keep up with him. … Defensively, we did okay once it was a five-on-five set but we just couldn’t stop him in transition.”
The matchup pitted the two squads’ contrasting offensive styles against one another all night. Between Dedmon and guard Jacary Crew, Warhill (12-5 BRD) pushed the tempo and scored in transition while the Eagles (7-9 BRD) showed more patience, running methodical half-court sets until they got the look they wanted. In the first half, that mostly meant getting the ball to Xavier Green, who showed off his versatility by knocking down long jumpers and getting to the cup almost at will.
He nearly matched Dedmon over the first 16 minutes, scoring 11 points, but his touches dropped after the break as Warhill held him to just two points in the second half.
“Our shots weren’t bad [in the second half], they just didn’t go in. So I can’t complain about [Green] not getting shots, because the other guys had good shots,” Underwood said.
[stextbox id=”news-sidebar” caption=”Wednesday’s Bay Rivers Scoreboard” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″ mleft=”1″ mright=”1″ mtop=”1″ mbottom=”1″]
Poquoson 71
Lafayette 64 (OT)
Bruton 72
New Kent 57
Tabb 71
Smithfield 59
Grafton 64
York 54
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Both teams were in near-lockstep over the first three quarters, and the fourth started with the Lions leading 47-46. But on Jamestown’s first possession, Logan Evans grabbed an offensive board, drew a foul and hit the put-back. He then knocked down the free throw to give the Eagles a 49-47 advantage.
With five minutes remaining, Jamestown’s lead had grown to three, but from there on it was all Warhill. Elden Tyler drew a foul on the Eagles’ Kenneth Fields and knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 53-52 in favor of Jamestown. Fields — who had scored four points in the quarter already and would finish with 12 — was forced to sit, and the Lions took advantage of his absence down low.
Dedmon hit a layup to give Warhill the lead before Brandon Pugh buried a three-ball to cap a 7-0 run that put the Lions up 57-53 with 3:12 to play. Evans finally got Jamestown back on track with a pair of free throws but by then Dedmon was rolling again, drilling a pull-up jumpshot before coming up with a steal on the other end and hitting a free throw to make it 60-55 Warhill with 36 seconds to go.
Dedmon missed his second attempt but the rebound went out of bounds off the Lions. After Tyler found space under the basket on the inbound and connected on a layup, Jamestown’s Anthony Redcross was called for a charge, sending Crew to the line and effectively sealing the Warhill victory. Coach Justin Hayes said the difference in the fourth was his team’s rebounding.
“We rebounded, and if we don’t rebound, we lose,” he said. “Boxing out and rebounding, that’s what our offense is predicated on.”
Up until the end of the game, the Eagles had held the biggest lead of the night when they jumped out to a 19-10 advantage in the first. But Warhill quickly cut into it, closing out the quarter on an 8-0 run that left Jamestown with a 19-18 lead heading to the second. From then to halftime the teams traded leads. Dedmon led the way, going for eight in in the quarter, as Warhill led 33-32 at the break.
“The guy is five-foot nine and amazing,” Hayes said of Dedmon. “He can do whatever he wants to do, at any time.”
Warhill 64, Jamestown 57
Warhill- 18 15 14 17
Jamestown- 19 13 14 11
Warhill: Brooks 2, Crew 13, Tyler 7, Dedmon 25, Pugh 11, Dage Jr. 2, Aadahl 4. 22; 14-20
Jamestown: Green 13, Redcross 5, Brown 3, Williams 12, Neville 4, Evans 5, Fields 12, Anderson 2. 18; 15-19
