Saturday, March 13, 2010
James River 'luvs' a winner
JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times
James River's Jordan Talbott (left) attempts to avoid a steal by Dan River's Trey Edmunds (right).
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RICHMOND -- Hold those cellphone calls.
As per a mandate by James River High basketball coach Mike Goad, all player mobile communication devices are to be forfeited come 10 p.m. state tournament nights.
With Ethan Humphries, Patrick Bennett, Jordan Talbott, Andrew Tucker, and John Bennett playing all but a total of two minutes as the Knights edged Dan River 52-50 in overtime Friday, they're going to need their rest.
James River will play Buckingham County at 5 p.m. today at the Siegel Center for the VHSL Group A Division 2 crown.
Thus, no phone calls.
Of course that was the policy before the semis, too. All phones were impounded with the coaches when one of them almost started to burn up. Text message after text came in unanswered. The digital correspondent, ever more frantic, was apparently the romantic interest of one of the players.
Later, when the phones were returned, Goad needled the would-be text recipient.
"I wuv you," the coach said.
Loose group, these Knights. Now on the verge of their 100th win (against 12 losses) the past four years and owners of a split with Division 3 finalist Cave Spring, these are players and coaches who don't rattle easily.
Calm was helpful when James River went 10:35 between field goals during a span that included the second, third, and fourth quarters again Dan River.
"We knew sometime or the other they were going to run the spurt," Goad said.
Despite a six-man rotation, the Knights had the legs in the end. Admitting he was tired, Patrick Bennett said not to worry about the team's readiness for the championship.
"We're going to be up big-time for that game tomorrow," he said. "They talked about worrying about our energy and everything, but I don't think that's going to be a problem just because of the emotions we're going to be playing with tomorrow."
The core group of seniors -- Patrick Bennett, Humphries, and Tucker -- have been playing together for a long time. As middle schoolers, they went undefeated. Bennett was sad to think the end was near.
"It's kind of bittersweet," he said. "This has been our goal since middle school. It would have been great to have one before this. It's going to hurt when it's over."
"Eighteen years for us and it all comes down to this game," Humphries said. "This is what we've been working for. We'll be up for it."
Tucker had eight rebounds and five points in the semis and Humphries and Bennett made the clutch plays down the stretch. A couple of the younger guys, junior Talbott and sophomore John Bennett, Patrick's brother, played big, too. Talbott took the feed from Humphries and tied the score 44-44, where it would remain going into overtime.
Talbott had 11 points. John Bennett added nine of his 11 in the second half to go with seven rebounds.
Goad, who once coached at Nelson County, is familiar with Buckingham County, which beat Lebanon 42-39 in the other semifinal.
"They have a habit of great rebounding, going strong on the boards, and great quickness in their athletes," Goad said. "And they just play hard."
Goad, who sports an all black shirt-tie-trousers combo, was asked if he'd need to wash his shirt before the big game.
"I brought another one," he said.
Maybe he knew something.
