Big Game Recap: Deep Run ends Henrico’s Streak
The Deep Run Wildcats avenged their overtime loss to Henrico in the Conference 11 Championship last season with a 65-60 win over Henrico last night. It was the first loss for the reigning 5A State Champs in 34 games, ending…
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Continue ReadingThe Deep Run Wildcats avenged their overtime loss to Henrico in the Conference 11 Championship last season with a 65-60 win over Henrico last night. It was the first loss for the reigning 5A State Champs in 34 games, ending the longest win streak for any high school program in the state of Virginia.
Henrico looked to have an early edge, as they fed off of the home crowd and jumped out to an early double digit lead. De’Monte Buckingham took two charges on Deep Run senior DaMontez Oliver in the first three minutes, sending the Campbell commit to the bench. Senior Richard Sanders hit a big three at the buzzer to put Henrico up 17-9 at the end of the first quarter, and things were rolling for the Warriors
However, Oliver was reinserted into the game at the beginning of the second quarter, and came out hot going for 13 of his 19 points in the quarter. However, after a big run to get back in the game, Oliver picked up his third foul with a little more than 30 seconds left in the half. Still, Deep Run didn’t waiver, and Coach Curt Kassab said he wasn’t worried about playing Oliver moving forward, heading into the half down 33-29.
“We were positive going into halftime, considering we didn’t make that many shots and had foul trouble with D,” Kassab said. “I’ve never been one for saving a player, and you can’t save a player against a team like Henrico because in the blink of an eye you can be down 10 points.”
Oliver played the majority of the second half, and played carefully only picking up one more foul. However, the second half belonged to senior point guard Jorge “Georgie” Pacheco, who finished 24 points, including a big third quarter that put Deep Run in the position to take the lead in the final quarter.
Much like their big win over John Marshall in the Richmond Times Dispatch Tournament, Deep Run’s defense stepped up in the fourth quarter, holding Henrico to just 10 points in the final period. Deep Run trailed by seven heading into the quarter after a Henrico run, but their role players stepped up as senior wing Evan Clark and junior point guard Curtis Cooper came up with big plays as they face guarded Pacheco and Oliver. Clark was especially big down the stretch, coming up with big steals and hitting nine free throws in the fourth.
“I still lose sleep over the Conference Championship game when we went 6-for-14 from the line,” Kassab said. “But it’s all about the maturation of our players. Evan is our energy guy, and Curtis did a phenomenal job staying within the system and getting us into our offense.”
Deep Run’s defense was stout all game, holding Richmond commit and Henrico all time leading scorer De’Monte Buckingham to just 9 points and 8 rebounds on 3-for-16 shooting from the floor. Despite a tough loss, and the end of the longest win streak in the state, Head Coach Vance Harmon says the team is responding well to their first loss in a season and a half.
“I never say that a loss is a good thing, but I think it can be a productive thing for teaching a lesson,” Harmon said. “We’ll see how we respond. If you want to be a great team at all you have to learn to deal with some adversity and deal with some setbacks.”
Here’s a breakdown of the scoring, including stats from the leaders of each program, and quotes from each coach after the game.
Stats
Halftime: Henrico 33 Deep Run 29
Final: Deep Run 65 Henrico 60
Deep Run Leaders: Georgie Pacheco (24 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 8-13 FG, 2-4 3PT, 6-7 FT); DaMontez Oliver (19 points, 5 rebounds, 6-11 FG, 3-5 3PT, 4-6 FT); Evan Clark (13 points, 5 steals, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 9-12 FT); Garrett Whitley (5 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 2-2 FG).
Deep Run Team Totals: 20-42 FG (47.6%), 5-11 3PT (45.5%), 20-27 FT (71.1%), 27 rebounds, 9 steals, 9 turnover, 7 assists.
Henrico Leaders: Richard Sanders (12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5-14 FG), Gus Rowland (12 points, 5 assists, 4-11 FG, 2-6 3PT), De’Monte Buckingham (9 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3-16 FG, 1-8 3PT), D’Marco Suggs (8 points, 9 rebounds, 4-6 FG).
Henrico Team Totals: 22-50 FG (37.3%), 9-32 3PT (28.1%), 7-8 FT (87.5%), 34 rebounds, 16 assists, 13 turnovers, 2 steals.
Quotes
“It was a great environment and two great high school teams, and we have all of the respect for Vance and Henrico. It’s been five years of building our program to where we can compete at this level. Our kids were disciplined down the stretch, we made free throws down the stretch this year, which we didn’t last year in the playoffs. But we have to keep this in perspective, this is just one game in a 22 game season, we have to keep getting better, but I’m elated for our kids and the discipline they showed down the stretch.”
“I’m not a gimmick guy, I don’t like to go out and try to play a triangle and two or box-and-one, we just went out and tried to stay fundamental in the system that we have. We wanted to identify their three seniors because they are great players, we had to keep Gus out of the paint because if we don’t he’ll gut your defense all night. That was our main focus, then just trying to close out and keep a hand up on their shooters. It was a great defensive effort. We stopped transition baskets, kept them out of the paint and forced them to take long jump shots.”
– Curt Kassab, Deep Run
“They made some really good plays tonight, plays when they mattered. We fell in love with the jump shot too much, while they attacked the basket more than we did. If you live by the jump shot, you die by the jump shot. They shot more free throws because we were settling for the jump shot. So give them credit, they did a great job and deserve to win, and this gives us a good place to work from there.”
“The guys are disappointed obviously, because they wouldn’t be human if they weren’t. We said before the game, we never get too high on a win and never get too low on a loss. This is just one game in the grand scheme of things. All of our goals are still alive, to win Conference 11 is still out there, which is always our number one goal. It’s on us. All of our goals are still out there, Deep Run just has a leg up. It’s good to put our guys in a this situation to see how they respond.