Sunday, January 29, 2006
Sports columnist Aaron McFarling: Redick beats old foe again
Aaron McFarling
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DURHAM, N.C. -- The basketball star from Roanoke was charging up the court on a breakaway, ready to score again. The only thing that stood between Virginia's J.R. Reynolds and the hoop at that moment was ... well, another basketball star from Roanoke.
Duke's J.J. Redick stood his ground, then slapped the ball away from Reynolds. Redick then passed the ball down court, where a teammate dunked and drew a foul.
Redick pumped his fist as the crowd came to its feet.
Got him again.
Poor Reynolds. The guy just can't catch a break when it comes to facing Redick. Despite his team-high 19-points, Reynolds and the Cavaliers fell 82-63 on Saturday night in what was perhaps the final head-to-head matchup between two of our city's finest alumni.
Unless Duke and UVa meet in the postseason, Reynolds will end his career 0-6 against Redick's Blue Devils.
High school was the same story. When Reynolds was at Roanoke Catholic and Redick at Cave Spring, J.J. never lost to J.R. The closest game was a one-point Cave Spring win in 2001.
"I always like playing against J.R.," said Redick, who was the talk of the night after scoring 40 points on 11-of-13 shooting. "The media and a lot of fans have tried to create this rivalry between us since I was a sophomore in high school and he was a freshman.
"I've got respect for him and love for him and I always have."
Maybe we have tried to create a rivalry. But if we have, we've failed. Rivalries are at their best when you don't know how they're going to end, and despite the individual excellence of both players, the game outcomes haven't changed in six years.
"It's not a me-beating-him thing," Reynolds said. "I'm disappointed that our team lost, no matter what."
Redick always seems to raise his game against his fellow Roanoker. When Cave Spring notched its sixth straight win over Catholic in 2002, Redick scored 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Reynolds, a three-time MVP of Virginia Independent Schools Division II before transferring to Oak Hill Academy for his senior year, struggled that night, shooting 4-of-16 from the field and finishing with 16 points.
Reynolds certainly didn't struggle Saturday. He was the Cavaliers' best weapon, shooting 50 percent from the field and making all three of his 3-point attempts.
"We played great half-court defense, so he was kind of relegated to getting his shots in transition," Redick said. "He was very opportunistic. He knocked down his open shots."
But as usual, Redick knocked down more. He curled off screens and drained 3-pointers. He took kick-out passes in the corner and let it fly. He slashed through the lane and dropped them in.
And Reynolds -- who in last year's ACC Tournament held Redick to one of his worst career shooting performances -- spent most of the night chasing the Duke senior around to no avail.
"I'd never seen him driving to the hole and putting the ball on the floor," Reynolds said. "I'd never seen that. It's obviously something he worked on over the offseason and he's doing a tremendous job becoming tough to guard."
If it sounds like these two have a lot of respect for each other, it's because they do. They were teammates on the Roanoke Jaguars in summer ball growing up. At the ACC media days this preseason, they chatted at length like old pals.
There wasn't much chatter during this game, but the two did meet briefly after it.
"I told him to keep playing well," Redick said. "He's having a great year, his best year yet in college. The main thing for him is just to stay aggressive."
Redick's 40 points will help him increase an already large margin atop the ACC's scoring list. Reynolds' scoring average will rise slightly from the 14.7 points per game he had coming into the weekend.
Quite a ways from high school, no doubt.
"He's obviously improved," Redick said. "I've improved."
He smiled playfully.
"He still hasn't beaten me, though," he said.
