Jefferson Falls to Streaking Madison

The Thomas Jefferson Colonials entered their final game of season one game over .500, knowing a win at Madison would greatly improve their chances of hosting the all-important first game of the Liberty District tournament. The Warhawks, after starting district competition 2-9, were coming off two consecutive wins over last-place Marshall and first-place Langley. And as anyone who has ever been can tell you, Madison is no easy place to play.

To make matters worse, the Colonials were without guard Richard Kuzma, whose 19.1 points per game is the highest in the district. In a jam-packed standing-room-only gym, the Warhawks pulled out a 33-30 victory.

The atmosphere was electric form the opening tip. The Madison student section waved red “terrible towels,” and the volume was deafening. The rival student section exchanged chants while the teams engaged in a defensive battle. Aaron Williams and Daniel Barnes set the tone early with two huge blocks, and the duo combined for 12 blocks on the game.

Madison began settling for contested jump shots and clearly looked uncomfortable getting away from their game plan of going to the basket. They scored a season-low four first-quarter points, all of which came from the line.

However, in the second quarter they began to have success in transition, and it was the Colonials who couldn’t find the bottom of the net. Burke Deutsch, who led all scorers with nine points, kept his team in the game scoring all four of their points in the period, and the Colonials went into the halftime break trailing 17-14.

Both teams continued to dominate defensively in the second half, and as a result, the game stayed close. As the time wound down, the defensive intensity increased and both teams began to turn the ball over. As each rebound became more and more important, the game got scrappy down low, and fouls began to add up. T.J. made several huge plays defensively to stay within a basket. Down two with 7.4 seconds remaining, they had a shot to tie or take the lead, but a difficult driving layup did not go down and Madison took the game. The Warhawks scored all eight of their fourth-quarter points from the line en route to the 3-point victory.