Fleming too much for Gar-Field

It wasn’t the way they wanted to end the season. Then again, it wasn’t where Gar-Field High School’s boys basketball team thought they’d be in the first place.
Not when you are 7-8 overall and 1-2 in the Cardinal District just over halfway through the regular season.
But a strong finish in which they won 10 of their next 11 games completed an impressive run that allowed the Indians to get within one win of reaching its first state tournament since 2005.
Even though the Indians fell short of that goal Thursday when they lost to visiting William Fleming 59-42 in the Group AAA Northwest Region Tournament semifinals, there were some good things to come out of a season that got off to a rough start.
“This hurts a lot, but there were a lot of positives to think about,” Gar-Field head coach Andy Gray said.
The Indians (17-10) had their hands full with an opponent that featured two seniors who have already received Division I offers.
Tall, athletic and fast, William Fleming (22-4) was too much for the overachieving Indians to handle.
With the exception of one time when the score was tied at the beginning of the second quarter, the Colonels led the entire game.
Gar-Field got within five with 1:40 remaining, but William Fleming finished things off by going 12 for 18 from the free-throw line to win by 17.
They had three players finish in double figures, led by 6-foot-3 senior forward Eric Thomas, who had 16 points, all in the first three quarters.
Senior guard Troy Daniels, who has offers from Marquette and Gonzaga among others, had 12 points; 6-7 senior center Jamille Hagins, who has offers from Radford and Delaware among others, had 11 points.
The Colonels also got strong play from their bench, in particular from Tre’ Jones, who finished with seven points.
“We just don’t match up with them physically at any position,” Gray said. “We got it back to five and didn’t quit, but David ran out of rocks for the sling.”
Defensively, William Fleming did a good job on Gar-Field’s main offensive threat, senior guard Kwasi Amponsah.
Amponsah, the Cardinal District Player of the Year, came into the game averaging an area-high 20.6 points per game.
But on Thursday, the Colonels made Amponsah work for every shot. He finished the night with 14 points on 4-for-20 shooting from the field.
Amponsah, who was four points away from finishing with 1,000 for his career, only scored one point in the fourth quarter before fouling out with 18 seconds remaining.
“We couldn’t loosen them up inside and that allowed them to get some outside heat on Kwasi,” Gray said.
William Fleming travels to George Washington-Danville Saturday for the regional championship.