JF boys fall to Broadway on last-second 3-pointer

FOREST — As Jefferson Forest boys basketball coach Paul Smith instructed his team on how to defend Broadway in the final 5.5 seconds of Tuesday night’s Region III, Division 4 quarterfinal, guard Brandon Harrison walked circles outside of the team huddle, hands on the back of his head, presumably trying to calm his racing nerves.

Harrison had just swished the first of two free-throws to tie the game at 37 and breathe life back into a Cavalier team that had scored only six fourth-quarter points.

After the timeout buzzer sounded, Harrison walked to the line and rattled the second shot home. The home crowd erupted, but the celebration turned out to be premature after Jonathan Leaman nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing as the horn sounded to give Broadway a 40-38 Region IV tournament victory and a Friday matchup with Spotswood in the semifinals at Northside.

“We knew 5.5 seconds was a ton of time,” Broadway head coach Dwight Walton said. “… (Leaman) knew he was going to get up the floor and look to be in the (3-point) area to catch the next pass … we told (our) post guys to run hard down the floor because we knew a two could win it for us.”

Although Leaman did not look for those post players, Walton felt he made a good decision.

“When he catches it, it’s like 1.2 (seconds),” Walton said. “I’m not sure you can make a pass then … a 3 wasn’t the design, but a jumper certainly wasn’t out of the question.”

Leaman led the Fighting Gobblers with 14 points and kept them close in the first half after his team started out sluggishly and trailed 27-20 at halftime. Leaman scored eight of his 14 before halftime.

“He had a very good game, a steady game that we didn’t get from anyone else,” Walton said.

That type of steadiness eluded the Cavaliers in the second half. Smith said he was happy with how his team attacked the Broadway zone, but unhappy with how the Cavaliers were finishing plays. JF scored just four points in the third quarter.

“We knew what we wanted to do but we couldn’t make the shots and we weren’t finishing, that was the main thing,” Smith said. “I think the game went pretty much how we expected, but we just quit scoring and they got a little momentum and we tightened up a little bit.”

The Cavaliers were also forced to play without Harrison, who led the Cavaliers with 12 points, for stretches of the fourth quarter after he picked up his fourth foul early on.

Chris Knight came up big on the defensive end for Broadway with seven steals.

JF grabbed a 9-8 lead early in the first quarter and did not relinquish it until Josh Jameson hit a layup with just over a minute left in the fourth to put the Gobblers on top 35-33. Jameson, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, hit another key jumper down the stretch to retake the lead for the Gobblers with 16 seconds left.

Amherst 61, Harrisonburg 54

Senior forward Phil Bowling scored a game-high 17 points and held Shane Pouncey to 15 with a little help from his teammates, Tuesday night at home.

Amherst (12-11) outscored Harrisonburg (11-13) 11-2 in the second quarter after collapsing on Pouncey, a 320-pound post player, with Tyler Brown or Athony Rose fronting him and Bowling staying between him and the basket.

“We had a hard time early trying to figure out how to help him out,” Lancers coach Eddie Carter said of Bowling. “He played man-up (on Pouncy) or tried to fight him off the block. We didn’t give them anything easy. Once he got it in there, he took up a lot of space and there wasn’t much we could do.”

Offensively, Bowling took on Pouncy one-on-one, finishing two of his three three-point plays in the third quarter.

“We spread it out some where he’d be isolated in the middle,” Carter said. “He put it on the floor and beat him to the hole.”

Jordan McCray scored 15 points for the Lancers, shooting 7 of 11 from the foul line, while Brown added nine and Rose eight.

Amherst travels to Northside on Friday to play William Byrd in a semifinal at 6 p.m.

VIC Tournament

VES 45, Roanoke Catholic 44

Playing without Terrence Abbitt, who was hospitalized with a bout of mono after Friday night’s 58-40 home loss to Roanoke Catholic (16-6), the Bishops pulled off the upset of the first round of the VIC.

Stuart Carrington scored all seven of his points in the last four minutes of the fourth quarter, sinking a 3-pointer, two free throws and the game-winning shot from right corner baseline with 15 seconds left.

Jacob Pierce scored a game-high 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Brandon Robenson added 12 points and Thomas Francke contributed eight points and 10 rebounds for the Bishops (9-12), who held a 17-9 halftime lead.

“We played great defense, played diamond-in-one on Jamar Brown and held him and their point guard to eight points,” VES coach Ren Marquette said. “We didn’t give him the penetration. We layed off him and got a lot of help.”

VES plays at Miller School in Thursday’s semifinal at 7 p.m.

“They’re the best team in the conference,” Marquette said. “We’re just going to go and play our hearts out.”

Win or lose, the Bishops will host Saturday’s VIC championship games.

LCA 59, Hargrave Military 39

With leading scorer Gorgi Branov a bit under the weather, Brandon Elrod sparked Liberty Christian Academy’s offense in the first half, sinking two big 3-pointers, one at the second-quarter buzzer.

“Branov wasn’t feeling well all afternoon,” LCA assistant coach Marty Chandler said. “He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. He deferred to his teammates.”

Elrod finished with 12 points and Mike Rocco added 10 for the Bulldogs.

LCA, seeded third, travels to second-seeded Blue Ridge on Thursday after beating the Barons Saturday at home.