Thomas Jefferson got a number of impressive individual contributions in its win over McLean Monday night–Noah Barnes had 23 points, Matt Jennings had 12 points and eight rebounds, Matt Maribojoc had four assists–but Colonial coach Mark Gray-Mendes was impressed with more than his starters.
“A huge debt of credit goes to our bench players,” Gray-Mendes said. “They’ve been busting their butts in practice…working really hard to simulate some of the other things teams do. They make our guys work incredibly hard and some of those guys are going to crack our rotation before too long.”
Indeed, it was a total team effort that led to the Colonials’ 53-33 opening night home victory over the Highlanders. The bench contributed about a third of TJ’s total rebounding output, and helped the home team apply constant defensive pressure to McLean after the first quarter.
The contest started out tight as both teams struggled with nerves and played some fairly efficient halfcourt man defense. Jefferson built a five-point lead by the end of the first quarter and then the game opened up a little in the second quarter as both teams tried some halfcourt traps. That’s when TJ’s experience started to shine through and McLean only managed two points the entire frame as the Colonials took a 22-9 lead into halftime.
“We’re extremely young overall,” McLean coach Mike O’ Brien said. “A lot of it had to do with first game jitters, a lot of people being tight early. I thought as the second half went on we got a lot better about executing and doing what we were trying to do on offense.”
The inexperienced Highlanders, who only return three players from last year’s team, did score a lot more in the second half as talented sophomore Matias Prock (three steals) and seniors Josh Kaplan and Robbie Denton started to do some damage. But unfortunately for them so did Barnes. He picked up two quick fouls in the first half to limit his playing time early but got to the rim often and drained three three-pointers en route to his game-high 23. Barnes was excited about his career-best performance, but like his coach was quick to praise everyone.
“I feel good but it was a total team effort,” Barnes said. “We thought we could deliver tonight and we did.” Asked if TJ’s overtime loss last year to McLean was a motivational factor, Barnes smiled. “I think we wanted revenge and I think the expectations got to us a little [early]. I feel more comfortable in a more fast-paced game, anyway.”
The Colonials aren’t traditionally known as a program that likes to play at a particularly fast pace, but that may be changing as Coach Gray-Mendes seeks to vary the team’s attack. “We’re not quite where we want to be as far as diversity in terms of what we want to do on offense,” he said. “This is an experienced group–I have really high expectations for them this year. What I really want to see us do is build on the experience we had last year and use it to make us, sort of, battle-tested. And I think our guys did a wonderful job of that tonight.”
–Chris Jollay
(all stats are unofficial)
| JEFFERSON | FG | FGA | FT | FTA | TP | RBS | AST | |
| MARIBOJOC | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 4 | |
| BARNES | 8 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 3 | 1 | |
| BROWN | 3 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | |
| JENNINGS | 4 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 1 | |
| ASEL | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Saravanapavan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Gaba | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Cho | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| Whalen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Pemble | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 19 | 39 | 8 | 16 | 53 | 25 | 8 | |
| Three-pointers: Barnes 3-3, Brown 2-6, Jennings 2-4, Gaba 0-1, Pemble 0-1 | ||||||||
| MCLEAN | FG | FGA | FT | FTA | TP | RBS | AST | |
| DENTON | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |
| PROCK | 2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |
| KAPLAN | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 0 | |
| LOPEZ | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| SENFT | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | |
| Aka | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Leggett | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| Stout | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| Xu | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| McCormick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 12 | 43 | 6 | 14 | 33 | 21 | 6 | |
| Three-pointers: Denton 0-2, Kaplan 1-2, Lopez 1-3, Senft 0-2, Stout 1-2 | ||||||||