Dominant sweep: Warriors hold off Colonels

View larger image James Wood’s T.J. Bruce drives toward the basket guarded by Sherando’s Isaiah Williams during their game Tuesday in Winchester. The Warriors won the game, 88-73. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Sherando’s Taylor Loudan looks to pass while being guarded by James Wood’s Mel Savarese (34) and Nick Foura (3) during their game Tuesday in Winchester. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Cam Butler of James Wood drives against Isaiah Williams of Sherando. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Kyle Frew-Kuhns of James Wood swats a shot attempt away by Isaiah Williams of Sherando. Dennis Grundman/Daily

By Jeff Nations - jnations@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Garland Williams spent about eight minutes Tuesday night doing his level best to plug leak after leak in his defense.

Facing a James Wood squad already notorious for firing up 3-pointer after 3-pointer, the Sherando coach knew just what he was up against -- stopping it, however, was another matter.

For a quarter, Williams had to be wondering if his Warriors were up to the job. A 28-point second quarter answered that question in convincing fashion, as Sherando erased an early deficit and started rolling toward an eventual 88-73 victory.

The final score may say otherwise, but Williams spent plenty of time sweating over preparing to slow the Colonels.

"Mainly putting pressure on shooters -- the thing is, it's almost like picking your poison because one would get hot ... you think you have a guy to cover him and he's not covering him that well, so you put more pressure on him and they kick it off to someone else and that guy gets hot," he said. "As many as they shoot, it seems like they make a good many against us."

James Wood (7-9, 0-4 Northwestern District) had Williams nearly realizing his worst fears in the first quarter, as three different Colonels connected on 3-pointers to help build an 18-12 lead. Sherando (8-9, 4-1 Northwestern) opted for an altered starting lineup during that stretch, as big man Terry Wood sat out the first quarter and reliable scorer Aaron Miller -- back after missing time with an injury -- came off the bench.

"Some guys did some things in practice that deserved to start, so that's the way it was," Williams said.

Wood got into action in the second quarter and Miller heated up, and the combination was lethal for James Wood. Each chipped in eight points as Sherando erased that deficit by outscoring the Colonels 28-12 to grab a 10-point halftime lead.

"We played four minutes of bad basketball," James Wood coach Al Smith said. "The last four minutes of that second quarter, we made some bad decisions on the offensive end and then we just didn't guard that well on the defensive end. It was just a poor four minutes of basketball, quite honestly."

The Colonels regrouped at halftime and came out firing once more to open the third quarter. Three more 3-pointers -- James Wood had 14 in all -- cut the deficit to three at 43-40 on Nick Foura's trey with 5:51 left in the period. Sherando answered back with a 10-2 run to stretch the lead back to 11, but Foura capped a 5-0 run with another 3-pointer to pull the Colonels back within 53-47.

"They came out and bam, bam -- hit the 3's and had a 10-point lead down to four," Williams said. "But I thought we did a good job withstanding that and were able to hit some shots to at least be able to stay close to that double-digit lead."

Williams can thank his son, guard Isaiah Williams, for breaking up that last James Wood run. The sophomore answered Foura's trey with a drive for a layup, then scored on a runner and finished the quarter with a length-of-the-court drive for a layup.

"I thought we did a good job coming out in the third with some fire, cutting into that lead a pretty good margin," Smith said. "Then at the end of the third we let Isaiah just dribble the length of the court for a layup and all we did was reach in. We didn't guard him. Nobody wanted to guard him."

Isaiah Williams finished with an uncharacteristically high eight points, flashing a few offensive skills he's largely suppressed this season.

"That's what we tell him -- right now we have folks that can score, and your role is to come in and give us a little spark on defense, play tough on defense," Garland Williams said. "If you have a chance to penetrate, you penetrate, but the main thing is to get the ball to people that are open."

Wood finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots despite missing the first quarter. Miller added 18 points and Brady Cook also had 18 for Sherando. Cook had 32 in the Warriors' earlier victory over the Colonels.

"It's a lot different -- we definitely know they're a 3-ball shooting team," Cook said. "We just needed to work on closing out, boxing out and getting the ball and pushing down the court. We want to play our speed, but we like to slow their speed down and have control of the game."

Foura led the Colonels with 15 points. Michael Carter added nine points and eight rebounds for James Wood, which was outrebounded 51-35 in the loss.