My takeaways from Class A No. 9 James Monroe’s 71-44 victory over No. 3 Greater Beckley.
The sophomore is quickly morphing into one of the area’s most complete players.
He’s the prototypical stat sheet stuffer and he continued that trend in the Mavericks statement victory.
Allen has already had two double doubles in four starts, one points/assists and Monday’s points/rebounds game (13/18).
The youngster also has the proverbial high basketball IQ. He has already figured out how to effect a game even when his shot is not falling, a rare trait in a player whose career is roughly a dozen games old.
He also had four assists, three steals and three blocks
He missed the first part of his freshman season with an injury.
Allen also grew about four or five inches in the off-season which helps.
“He is going to fill up the stat columns,” coach Matt Sauvage said. “He is a little bit of everywhere (on the floor). If he’s not scoring, he’s getting assists, he’s getting rebounds, he’s getting steals. He is everywhere. From last year to this year, his height has helped him some, but more than that his knowledge and understanding of the game has helped him tremendously.”
Of course Allen, whose father Rodney was a baseball player at WVU two decades prior, is already well versed in what to say about his game.
“I’m just trying to do whatever I have to do to help the team win,” he said.
Right now whatever has been a little bit of everything and his smorgasbord of talents has fit this team well.
And as 3s go, they didn’t get any bigger than the junior’s back to back triples to start the second half.
GBC got within 6 at the half, but Sauvage’s daggers doubled the score.
With 63 3s last year and 132 entering the season, he is one of the area’s top perimeter marksmen.
GBC coach Justin Arvon was well aware.
“We had our guard right there in front of him on the first one, we just didn’t get a hand up and let him pull up and shoot, Arvon said. “We had just talked about that in the locker room.”
On the second the Mavs reversed the ball to Sauvage and he hit the second when the Crusaders didn’t recover in time to guard him.”
He has not been happy with his shooting though he has 14 3s in four games.
“The first couple of games of the season I didn’t shoot like I felt I needed to,” Sauvage said. “I wasn’t hitting my shots. My confidence wasn’t up. After tonight I feel like it’s gone back up.”
The Mavericks are a young team. Sophomore Josh Burks, in his second year as a starter, hit a couple of big 3s in the second half.
The Mavericks are an exciting team to watch.
“These guys like to get up and down the court,” coach Sauvage said. “They thought they could do that do we said ‘let’s go ahead and do it.’ It’s paid off for us.”