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Tiger boys take out Colonels in Nokesville 62-55
Tyler Brown scored six points in one second Tuesday night in Nokesville.
And the Brentsville District Tigers needed every single point.
Brown’s six-point performance in the last second of the first half gave the home team just enough to work with in its 62-55 win over Northwestern District rival James Wood (9-9 overall, 5-5 conference).
The win also kept the Tigers in the hunt to host a game in the playoffs as it created a three-way tie for third place between James Wood, Brentsville and Sherando.
Even when the Colonels came within one point of the Tigers near the end of the third quarter, Brentsville (7-11, 5-5) answered with another buzzer beater to keep the lead.
“As a team, I don’t think we locked them down on defense,” said Brown (24 points). The emphasis for the Tigers was instead on scoring, which the senior noted Brentsville relied too heavily upon against the Colonels.
Coach Chris Southcott was a fan of Brown and the offensive production after the Tuesday game but he thought a lack of game management hurt the Tigers defensively.
“We look like we can extend our lead to 15, 16 points and then suddenly we’re back down to two or three,” Southcott said.
He credited his defense for not allowing James Wood to “get over the top” in the second half. When the two teams clashed in Winchester Dec. 18, Brentsville had a lead at the start of the fourth quarter but the Colonels ultimately came back to force overtime and eventually won.
This time, consistent offensive production from Brown and senior guard-forward Dalonte Mason (22 points) staved off a 19 point performance from James Wood junior Matt Johnson, nine of which came bunched together in last half of the second quarter.
Brentsville did not have a comfortable lead 4:05 before halftime but was still up by 15-11.
Johnson then sunk two one-and-one free throws to cut the Tigers’ spread to two. Less than a minute later, senior John Weiss assisted him on a baseline 3-pointer near the BD bench, putting JW up 16-15.
But Johnson was not done there as he stole Brentsville’s next possession and put in another hoop for another Colonels deuce.
That’s when Brown had enough.
He made one free thrown and missed the next though it worked out well for Brentsville since Mason was there for the rebound and bucket, knotting the game at 18.
Moments later, Brown snatched the ball from Weiss and went coast-to-coast for a lay in, though Johnson responded immediately after depositing a JW coast-to-coast pass into the basket.
With less than 10 seconds to go before the half, the Brentsville faithful and bench alike repeatedly yelled “Clock!” Brown, caught up in the paint, tossed in a shot with one tick remaining, drawing a foul to boot.
After Brown sank his free throw, all James Wood had to do was successfully inbound a pass and Colonels would head to the locker room down by just four points.
Instead, an errant toss over half court sailed out of bounds without ever hitting the floor inbounds, giving the Tigers the ball right back right underneath the hoop.
Senior guard David Grant found Brown wide open on the side of the court closest to the James Wood bench. Grant lobbed the ball, Brown caught and, from a distance that would have even been a 3-pointer in the NBA, he jumped, shot and…
Swoosh.
Right at the buzzer.
“I told David that if they collapse on Dalonte in the middle, throw it out to me, I’ll knock down the shot and that’s exactly what happened,” said Brown after the game.
“Tyler has the ability to play basketball and he showed it tonight,” Southcott said, clearly understating Brown’s talent.
“Any given game, he can go out and put points on the board.”
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