WHS Tops TA
Little Giants Win, 55-47
Posted: December 8, 2012
BRIDGEWATER – If there was a local high school boys’ basketball edition of “SportsCenter” top 10 plays of the week, half of them could have easily come from Turner Ashby High School and Waynesboro in Friday night’s Valley District opener.
TA coach Chad Seibert said even the referee approached him in the fourth quarter and commented on how good of a game it was.
“It was a fun game,” Seibert said. “… Both teams were going at it. Nobody was losing their mind about anything. It was physical, but clean, and that’s what it’s all about.”
It was just a little bit more fun for Waynesboro.
Playing its first full game without 6-foot-3 senior forward Justin Layman, TA struggled to solve 6-foot-2 forwards Chevez Harvey and Zach Brown on the boards in key stretches, as the unbeaten Little Giants overcame Shane Brown’s 20-point performance to win 55-47.
“That was a hard-fought game,” WHS coach C. Jay DeWitt said. “It came down to a couple defensive stops, a couple steals, and, you know, we kinda pulled it out at the end.”
Harvey finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Zach Brown scored eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter for Waynesboro (5-0 overall, 1-0 in the Valley).
The back-and-forth battle was played within a five-point window until the final 90 seconds, as the Giants salted away the victory with a 12-3 closing run. Brown scored the go-ahead basket on a feed from Stowe Graham with 3:56 left.
Then, after Harvey setup Graham for a layup with a nice dish to the baseline, Brown stole a lazy TA pass near midcourt and converted another. Mackie Quillen added one more to cap an 8-0 run and give Waynesboro a 51-44 lead.
“They got some easy buckets,” Shane Brown said. “We didn’t get back.”
Making matters worse for the Knights (3-2, 0-1) was that they had plenty of fouls to give – they had committed just two late into the fourth quarter – and were unable to put WHS on the line to extend the game.
“I just preached to them about being able to play pressure defense and not fouling, and they do it and it hurts them,” Seibert said.
Neither Shane Brown nor Seibert sugarcoated the fact that Layman’s absence in the lineup also hurt.
“A lot. A lot,” said Seibert, later noting Layman is out indefinitely after re-aggravating an ankle injury Wednesday against East Rockingham, after originally getting hurt last week against Page County. “I can’t ask anything else out of the guys that were on the floor. … [But] we missed [Layman] in every facet of the game.”
Especially rebounding. Waynesboro earned several second-chance opportunities, including three in four possessions during the third quarter that allowed the Giants take a 32-30 lead with 3:49 left in the period.
A steady dose of dribble drives by Angel Bravo and Shane Brown continued to test DeWitt’s defense – which was OK with him.
“We do more passing, cutting and moving,” DeWitt said. “Generally, if they do a lot of dribble penetration and one-on-one, most of the time that’s easier to defend.”
But not all of the time. Between splitting defenders with behind-the-back dribbles and even getting a nifty hook shot to go after gathering his own miss, Shane Brown put on quite a show on his own.
“He definitely earned his 20 points,” DeWitt said of TA’s 6-foot-1 junior shooting guard.
Brown, who already has a 30-point game for TA this season, chalked up a strong dribble-drive game that produced a handful of and-one opportunities to practice and said “he can” be that kind of scorer going forward for the Knights, who didn’t have a single player average double figures last season.
On Friday, though, with Layman’s rebounding, scoring and leadership on the shelf, TA played four players a full 32 minutes and found themselves chasing late without enough time, or fouls to give, in order to catch a balanced, athletic Waynesboro squad.
“They’re so patient. They kind of lull you to sleep,” Seibert said. “It’s hard to play defense for that long, but you have to. We communicated better than we ever have, but it’s still not there. We had a lapse. And anytime there’s a lapse that gives the advantage to the offense, good teams capitalize, which they did.”
WAYNESBORO
Allen 1 4-4 6, Z. Brown 8 0-0 17, Harvey 6 2-4 14, Graham 4 0-0 9, Quillen 4 0-0 8, Baker 0 1-2 1. Totals 23 7-10 55.
TURNER ASHBY
Corbin 3 2-4 8, Hanifee 0 1-2 1, S. Brown 9 2-6 20, Bravo 6 0-0 12, Pence 3 0-0 6. Totals 21 5-12 47.
Waynesboro 11 13 15 16 — 55
Turner Ashby 11 15 12 9 — 47
3-Point Goals—WHS 2 (Z. Brown, Graham), TA 0. Fouled Out—none. Rebounds—WHS 27 (Harvey 10), TA 17 (S. Brown, Bravo 4). Total Fouls—WHS 14, TA 9.
JV score: 54-40, TA.
TA coach Chad Seibert said even the referee approached him in the fourth quarter and commented on how good of a game it was.
“It was a fun game,” Seibert said. “… Both teams were going at it. Nobody was losing their mind about anything. It was physical, but clean, and that’s what it’s all about.”
It was just a little bit more fun for Waynesboro.
Playing its first full game without 6-foot-3 senior forward Justin Layman, TA struggled to solve 6-foot-2 forwards Chevez Harvey and Zach Brown on the boards in key stretches, as the unbeaten Little Giants overcame Shane Brown’s 20-point performance to win 55-47.
“That was a hard-fought game,” WHS coach C. Jay DeWitt said. “It came down to a couple defensive stops, a couple steals, and, you know, we kinda pulled it out at the end.”
Harvey finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Zach Brown scored eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter for Waynesboro (5-0 overall, 1-0 in the Valley).
The back-and-forth battle was played within a five-point window until the final 90 seconds, as the Giants salted away the victory with a 12-3 closing run. Brown scored the go-ahead basket on a feed from Stowe Graham with 3:56 left.
Then, after Harvey setup Graham for a layup with a nice dish to the baseline, Brown stole a lazy TA pass near midcourt and converted another. Mackie Quillen added one more to cap an 8-0 run and give Waynesboro a 51-44 lead.
“They got some easy buckets,” Shane Brown said. “We didn’t get back.”
Making matters worse for the Knights (3-2, 0-1) was that they had plenty of fouls to give – they had committed just two late into the fourth quarter – and were unable to put WHS on the line to extend the game.
“I just preached to them about being able to play pressure defense and not fouling, and they do it and it hurts them,” Seibert said.
Neither Shane Brown nor Seibert sugarcoated the fact that Layman’s absence in the lineup also hurt.
“A lot. A lot,” said Seibert, later noting Layman is out indefinitely after re-aggravating an ankle injury Wednesday against East Rockingham, after originally getting hurt last week against Page County. “I can’t ask anything else out of the guys that were on the floor. … [But] we missed [Layman] in every facet of the game.”
Especially rebounding. Waynesboro earned several second-chance opportunities, including three in four possessions during the third quarter that allowed the Giants take a 32-30 lead with 3:49 left in the period.
A steady dose of dribble drives by Angel Bravo and Shane Brown continued to test DeWitt’s defense – which was OK with him.
“We do more passing, cutting and moving,” DeWitt said. “Generally, if they do a lot of dribble penetration and one-on-one, most of the time that’s easier to defend.”
But not all of the time. Between splitting defenders with behind-the-back dribbles and even getting a nifty hook shot to go after gathering his own miss, Shane Brown put on quite a show on his own.
“He definitely earned his 20 points,” DeWitt said of TA’s 6-foot-1 junior shooting guard.
Brown, who already has a 30-point game for TA this season, chalked up a strong dribble-drive game that produced a handful of and-one opportunities to practice and said “he can” be that kind of scorer going forward for the Knights, who didn’t have a single player average double figures last season.
On Friday, though, with Layman’s rebounding, scoring and leadership on the shelf, TA played four players a full 32 minutes and found themselves chasing late without enough time, or fouls to give, in order to catch a balanced, athletic Waynesboro squad.
“They’re so patient. They kind of lull you to sleep,” Seibert said. “It’s hard to play defense for that long, but you have to. We communicated better than we ever have, but it’s still not there. We had a lapse. And anytime there’s a lapse that gives the advantage to the offense, good teams capitalize, which they did.”
WAYNESBORO
Allen 1 4-4 6, Z. Brown 8 0-0 17, Harvey 6 2-4 14, Graham 4 0-0 9, Quillen 4 0-0 8, Baker 0 1-2 1. Totals 23 7-10 55.
TURNER ASHBY
Corbin 3 2-4 8, Hanifee 0 1-2 1, S. Brown 9 2-6 20, Bravo 6 0-0 12, Pence 3 0-0 6. Totals 21 5-12 47.
Waynesboro 11 13 15 16 — 55
Turner Ashby 11 15 12 9 — 47
3-Point Goals—WHS 2 (Z. Brown, Graham), TA 0. Fouled Out—none. Rebounds—WHS 27 (Harvey 10), TA 17 (S. Brown, Bravo 4). Total Fouls—WHS 14, TA 9.
JV score: 54-40, TA.