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Jackets Sting Visiting Eagles

James Monroe ekes out 64-63 victory over Freedom

By Cody Norman

With just over two minutes remaining in Monday night's  meeting between James Madison and Freedom, the Yellow Jackets used their up-tempo brand of basketball to pull ahead by a nine point  margin. The Eagles, however, clawed back and pulled within a basket with 27 seconds left. Seconds later, a quick steal and bucket from Arazi Simmons knotted the game at 63 with just 20 ticks remaining on the clock and the basketball in the possession of the Jackets.

Senior guard Ty'Ran Bates caught the ball on the wing, attacked the rim, was fouled and sent to the line for two shots with just three seconds remaining. After misfiring on the first attempt, Bates collected himself and calmly sank the game-winner to seal the deal for the Yellow Jackets. The 5-foot 10-inch guard finished the evening with a steady 13 point performance.

Bates teamed up with fellow backcourt junior guard Devin Blake, who poured in 20 points, to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 64-63 victory over the visiting Freedom Eagles.

"[Bates and Blake] came up big for us tonight," said Coghill said. "And we definitely needed every last bit of it."

High school sports roundup

BOYS BASKETBALL

JM 64, Freedom 63

Freedom rallied to tie the score with 17 seconds to play, but Ty'Ran Bates was fouled with three seconds left and converted 1-of-2 free throws to help James Monroe get a nondistrict win last night.

Bates finished with 13 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and Devin Blake added a season-high 20 points for the unbeaten Yellow Jackets. Eric Hairston totaled nine rebounds and Te'Quan Alers six.

High School boys basketball roundup

Lucas clutch late in victory

Da'Quan Lucas scored a game-high 17 points and hit 8-of-10 fourth-quarter free throws as visiting James Monroe held on for a 62-55 Battlefield District victory despite making just one field goal in the final period last night.

Ty'Ran Bates was 9-for-11 from the line, part of JM's 23-for-29 effort. Devin Blake added 15 points and Te'Quan Alers 10 for the Yellow Jackets (10-7, 7-5).

High school boys basketball roundup

KING GEORGE 75, JM 69

D.J. Lewis scored 21 points to help the Foxes clinch the No. 2 seed in the Battlefield District tournament. Devin Blake led James Monroe (11-8, 8-6) with 21 points and 11 assists.

Jackets advance

Battlefield District boys basketball semifinals

BY ADAM HIMMELSBACH

Nobody enjoys James Monroe's hot 3-point shooting as much as junior center Te'Quan Alers. And that's kind of ironic, because Alers is 6-foot-8 and about 250 pounds, and rarely ventures beyond the arc.

But when the Yellow Jackets are firing as efficiently and successfully as they were last night, it forces defenses to spread farther away from the paint, giving Alers some much-appreciated square-footage to work with. Alers finished with 19 points and nine rebounds and James Monroe drilled nine 3-pointers as it held off top-seeded Culpeper, 82-71, in a Battlefield District semifinal.

James Monroe's Da'Quan Lucas had 18 points and Devin Blake added 16. Ty'Ran Bates tallied 12 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Yellow Jackets, who will face King George in tomorrow's district championship.

With 4 minutes, 18 seconds left in the second quarter, Lucas drained a 3-pointer from the right side of the arc that gave the Jackets a 31-16 lead. But Culpeper responded quickly, closing the half with a 16-5 run. With 13 seconds left, Drayton Shanks (15 points) drove through the lane and threw down a two-handed slam. Seconds later, he stole the ball and coasted in for a one-handed dunk.

After Shanks started the second half with a layup that sliced Culpeper's deficit to 36-34, James Monroe responded with a 9-0 flurry. Culpeper would not go down quietly, however. Bobby Zajkowski (15 points) drilled consecutive 3-pointers before Nik Stewart added another from the right arc, helping the Blue Devils pull within 54-53 after three quarters.

But in the fourth quarter, James Monroe had one more rally, and this time the Blue Devils had no answer. Blake hit a pair of 3-pointers during a 14-2 run, and the Yellow Jackets made 7 of 8 free throws in the final minutes to seal the win. "But we can't lose our focus," Blake said. "We want to win a state title and go all the way, and we can't let a win like this go to our heads."

BOYS BATTLEFIELD SEMIFINALS: Jackets show range

By Ron Counts

James Monroe's Devin Blake drained four of the Yellow Jackets' nine 3-pointers, Tequan Alers recorded a double-double and the Jackets converted on 15-of-19 trips to the free throw line to upset No. 1 Culpeper 82-71 in the rivals' third meeting of the season. The Blue Devils have become accustomed to being the ones lighting up the scoreboard from beyond the 3-point arc, but James Monroe (14-5) got hot from the perimeter early Wednesday.

Torreik Ferguson drained a shot from long range at the end of the first quarter, before the Jackets reeled off four straight 3-pointers in the second to put James Monroe up by as many as 16 points.

Bobby Zajkowski hit one of his three 3-pointers to cut the Jackets’ lead to eight with one minute left in the second quarter, and Drayton Shanks ended the half with a two-handed slam dunk followed by a one-handed dunk to send Culpeper into the locker room at halftime trailing just 36-32.

Culpeper made another furious push in the third, though, and actually cut the Jackets’ lead to one point thanks to a 3-pointer from Nik Stewart and six straight points reeled off by point guard Josh Majors. But that’s when James Monroe got hot from beyond the arc again.

Blake hit his third and fourth 3-pointers and Alers sank a lay-up and drew a foul to put the Jackets up by 11, a deficit that proved too much for the Blue Devils to overcome.