Dan River comes alive in second half, conquers Clarke County

During his halftime speech, Dan River coach Jacob Gruse reminded his players of the battle they withstood against Altavista in mid-January that the team needed in order to be prepared for postseason play.

The message was simple — the Wildcats needed to play their style of basketball and not let another team dictate how Dan River played.

Dan River responded by holding Clarke County to 16 second-half points and dictating the tempo in a 55-33 victory to advance in the Region B, Division 2 tournament.

The top-seeded Wildcats (23-0) will play fourth-seeded William Monroe (17-7) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Amherst County High School. William Monroe defeated Buckingham, 73-50.

“We finally got out of the funk in the second half and actually started … playing good defense. I feel like we played decent defense — you only give up 33 points in a game, you’ve got to feel like you did pretty good. But we didn’t have that feeling so much,” Gruse said. “Our guys just get out in transition and things can happen. With our team, things snowball very quickly.”

The snowball effect Gruse referred to happened in the third quarter, as Dan River took a 27-21 lead at the 4:42 mark of the third quarter and scored the next 11 points after Shun Brooks (seven points, five rebounds) converted a three-point play to give the Wildcats a 38-21 lead with 3:12 left in the period.

That turnaround allowed Dan River to pick up the speed of the game and force Clarke County, which plays a methodical offense and 2-3 zone defense, into playing a more pressing game that turned into Dan River’s favor.

Devante Davis, who has been the Wildcats’ most consistent scorer in the past five contests, scored a game-high 19 points. Trey Edmunds, the Dogwood District player of the year, finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three assists.

“We did what we did all season long,” Davis said. “The first three minutes of the third quarter is very important to us. We came out, turned up our defensive intensity and we were able to get some shots to go.”

Connor Shendow led Clarke County (14-10) with 10 points and David Hardesty finished with nine points.

The Eagles were playing without their two leading scorers — Ethan Emmart (concussion) and Todd Benton (sprained ankle), even though it didn’t seem to bother Clarke most of the first half as the Eagles kept the Wildcats within striking distance, 23-17, at intermission.

“We had to slow it down; we only had a six-man rotation,” Clarke County coach Brent Emmart said. “We usually have an eight-man rotation and it really hurt not having our two leading scorers out there. … You can’t make excuses because nobody cares who’s hurt. The only thing anybody cares about is wins and loses. So, it’s a combination of those things, them being good, us not having our two leading scorers and then not executing in the second half and them speeding us up.”

Dan River faces its second team from the Bull Run District in as many contests when the Wildcats play the Green Dragons on Thursday. Its another opportunity for the Wildcats to play the stiffer competition from Region B and try to stamp a fourth straight ticket to the Group A state tournament.

“We know what type of team we’re going to face in the long run and we know the competition is going to get better,” Edmunds said. “We know we’ve got to continue to bring our ‘A’ game. From here on out, we’ve got to bring it for four quarters instead of two quarters because to beat the good teams, we have to play all four quarters — 32 minutes.”

Region B, Division 2 quarterfinals

Dan River 55, Clarke County 33

CLARKE COUNTY (14-10)

Shendow 3 2-2 10, Hardesty 3 3-4 9, McDonald 2 0-0 6, Ramey 0 0-0 0, Sefton 1 0-0 2, Dulaney 2 2-2 6. Totals 11 7-8 33.

DAN RIVER (23-0)

Davis 7 4-5 19, McMoore 0 1-2 1, Harper 3 1-2 7, Tr. Edmunds 6 2-4 14, Robertson 2 1-2 5, Te. Edmunds 0 0-0 0, Adams 1 0-0 2, Brooks 2 3-3 7, Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 12-18 55.

Clarke County   7   10    8   8  —  33

Dan River        14     9  17 15  —  55

3-Point Goals — Clarke County 4 (Shendow 2, McDonald 2), Dan River 1 (Davis). Fouled Out — None. Total Fouls — Clarke County 15, Dan River 9.