Mountaineers crush Eagles in battle for third place

By Jerry Holsworth - sports@nvdaily.com

BERRYVILLE -- In the battle with Madison County on Tuesday for third seed in the Bull Run District boys basketball race, Clarke County played exceptionally well for one half.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, there are two halves in a basketball game. In the second half, the Mountaineers dominated Clarke County in every phase of the game, blowing the Eagles out of their own gym, 83-53.

Clarke County has just one day to get past the loss before it hosts Strasburg on Thursday in the opening round of the Bull Run District tournament. A loss against the Rams will almost certainly keep the Eagles out of the Region B tournament for the first time in more than a decade.

With the Mountaineers leading 32-30 after one half, the third quarter began with promise for Clarke County. Eagles guard Ethan Emmart hit a pair of free throws 15 seconds into the second half to tie the score at 32-all.

After that, though, it was all Madison County.

"We were tied 32-32 after Ethan's foul shots," Eagles coach Brent Emmart said. "Then our defense let us down, and it became a layup drill for them. I'm very disappointed in our play in the second half. They just ran the ball right up our back, and their size really worked to their advantage. They also beat our press up pretty good."

Clarke County went 1 for 7 from the field over the next four minutes, allowing the Mountaineers to quickly regain the lead and expand it to an almost insurmountable margin.

What made the collapse so telling was the lack of defensive effort by the Eagles.

Madison County repeatedly passed the ball over the Clarke County's press for wide open layups.

Mountaineers forward Matt Temple was the chief beneficiary of those passes, scoring 12 third-quarter points, almost all of them coming from wide-open shots under the basket.

"They were running a 2-1-2 press, and it was frustrating to us in the first half," Mountaineers coach Ben Breeden said. "We were trying to beat it to their strength in the first half. In the second half, we went over the top and that really paid off. Our guys did a great job against it and were able to make that extras pass that gave us some easy baskets."

Madison County, thanks to Temple's shooting, went on a 12-2 run after Emmart's two free throws to jump ahead 44-34 with 4:37 still left in the period.

The breakdown didn't stop there, though, as Clarke County managed just 4 of 18 from the field in the quarter and shot just 3 of 7 from the free-throw line.

"We really shot the ball poorly, and before you know it they were ahead by 15 or 20," Emmart said. "This was one of our worst home losses of the year. It's just embarrassing."

Temple wasn't the only Mountaineer to light up the scoreboard in the period -- five other Madison County players contributed to their 30 points in the third period. The result was a 62-42 lead with only one quarter to play.

Clarke County did manage to get on the scoreboard during the final period, thanks to a 9 of 10 performance at the line. That, however, had very little effect on the Mountaineers' ability to expand their lead again in the period. The Eagles were 1 of 15 from the field for the fourth quarter.

In all, four Mountaineers were able to score in double figures. Temple led the way with 24 points, but Travis Warren and Bobby Ford were also hot from the field, scoring 17 points each. Madison County center Nick Paxton had 10 points.

The loss spoiled a productive performance by Ethan Emmart, who finished with 18 points, including four 3-pointers and a 4-for-4 night at the line. Unfortunately for Clarke County, three of his four 3-pointers came in the first half.

"There are two ways that we can go after this," Brent Emmart said. "We can keep going south or we can pick ourselves up. We have to win Thursday to get into regionals. If we lose to Strasburg, we could be out for the first time in 13 or 14 years."